Gingerbread anyone?

First let me say welcome to my new followers. It is lovely to see you. Thanks for joining me. I hope we can share some great ideas together.

Once again I have turned to digistamps for todays card. I am still not completely sold on them. The majority of images are what I call 'cute' and I don't usually do cute, but they are often more suitable for some of the challenges I am enjoying doing. Although they can't be transferred using different types of ink as a stamp can, making them less suitable for copic markers, embossing etc, they do have the advantage of no storage needed, and they can be resized and cropped as I have done here. I started with the gingerbread tree image from Pinkcat studio. One challenge involved using Kraft card and I wasn't even sure what that was. I looked it up and it seems to be basically recycled brown paper/card. I have no access to that as a craft item out here but I remembered a packet of envelopes bought in a pack from the QVC seconds shop in Shrewsbury, which I haven't used because I was unsure of their weather durability, so I dug those out. I printed the stamp on the envelope front and added some colour using Sakura permapaque pens. I didn't like it on the brown background so I then cut all the little men out and glued them onto the same image printed onto white paper which I had already cut into a circle and distressed with adirondak cranberry ink. I then used the rest of the envelope to cover a square white card. (It has a hole in the middle where I have cut out the image, but it is hidden under the layering!). I then made the matting layers from some lovely red, metallic, embossed card, and green paper from a huge docrafts Christmas stack. A couple of pieces of sticky ribbon made the stripes, but I wanted a suitable greeting and was a bit stuck. Then I resized and cropped the original image and printed out a single gingerbread man on one of the envelope flaps, and made him a tiny greeting banner to hold.

This card is for the following challenges:
ABC Christmas Challenge: K is for Kids, using Kraft card
Cute Card Thursday Challenge 166: Using a sketch
Creative Card Crew: Anything goes
Paper Crafting Journey: Anything goes
CRAFT Challenge 104: Alter/recycle (envelope)

Bells are Ringing

When I saw that the theme for one of my challenges this week is Sleigh Bells, I went to my folder of Christmas stamps and was quite surprised to find that I didn't have a single bell stamp. Then I vaguely remembered using a script stamp in the shape of a bell, so I had a hunt, and came up with this Oasis stamp. The wood mount was actually dated 1992 and that's probably how long I have had it, but it hasn't seen the light of day many times! I then hunted through my charms and found these two pairs of silver bells that I think come from some wedding toppers I bought a very long time ago. ( I also have a lot of small round bells in my stash which are, perhaps, more in keeping with sleigh bells, but they are much too dimensional for a card that will quite likely be posted from Spain to UK).

I have very recently bought a bundle of mixed shades of very narrow blue ribbon, so I decided to use a blue base card. The main bell is stamped with Memento Paris Dusk onto white card, cut out and distressed around the edge with the same ink. I then did the same with a SeeD's greeting stamp. I wanted something to lift the plain blue card so I used this Laxmi stamp-holly trail, stamping it first on scrap paper to remove some of the ink, and then stamping a pale impression on my card. I used off cuts of the ribbons to make tiny bows to finish it off.

I am entering this card in Bah! Humbug! Challenge 21; Sleigh bells Ring
Craftyhazlenuts Christmas Challenge 22: Use some ribbon
Creative Inspirations Challenge 113: Christmas in May
2 Sisters Challenge blog: Anything goes

Birthday fun

I took a few days off card-making this week (though I did manage to squeeze a couple of challenges in at the last minute), in order to concentrate on my sons scrapbook. I have promised I will try to have it complete for when I return to UK for a visit in October, but I still have many, many pages to do! Anyway, I did manage to complete four pages this week so I thought I would do a write up about two of them.

This was a double spread to celebrate his childhood birthdays and I think I was a bit ambitious with my plan. The idea of this book is to tell the story of his first 21 years or so, filling in the bits he won't remember, and storing for ever some happy memories that we both share, so each page holds rather more photos than some people put in their modern style scrapbooks. I have so many and it is really hard to decide which ones to leave out. I have already made a plan of the themes for each page, and roughly sorted my photos accordingly. So my first step with a new page is to see what I have to work with, group these for pieces of journalling and think about a title etc. Then I draw a plan of the page on a 12" x 12" sheet of white paper, so I can see just what size I need each picture to be, and how big a text box I can allow for the script. I know that is not the way a lot of folk work, and my scrapbooking friends here think it is just too organised, but it suits me. The photos are quite old (well he's 25 now so not that old!), and they have not been stored too carefully, so I scan them in to my computer and use Corel PSP to tidy them up if necessary. Then I use Publisher to make each one the required size and print them out.

For the title I decided to cut out a row of balloons in bright colours and cut the letters for happy birthday out of them. I did this on craft robo using a template that I made when I made a similar book for his brother. I used a range of pearlescent papers as these cut so well with my machine. I had intended leaving them like that but I knew these would be quite 'busy' pages, so I chose a fairly neutral background paper and it didn't stand out through the cut letters in my balloons. So then I cut some more letters and put a letter of a contrasting colour in each balloon. Then I had the idea for the number train along the lower edge. This was a template that I bought from craftuprint, with a young grandson's birthay in mind. It was an SGV file which normally I would open in inkscape and cut straight to my craftrobo, but this time I could not make the cutter 'see' the file. After many abortive tries, and a wasted afternoon, (even my computer-smart hubby couldn't get it to work!), I had a rethink. I moved the engine and just the carriages that I wanted (there is template for every letter and number) on to a new page and printed them. I scanned this sheet into the computer, converted it to a bitmap and loaded this into craftrobo using the design master software that I bought separately. I then discovered that the carriages were not all the same size so I had to do a bit more adjusting, but eventually, Hey presto! I had my train. Was it worth it? Well I think so.

Once the train and balloons were glued in place, it was relatively straightforward to mount the photos and arrange them on the pages. I am not good with empty spaces so I cut out a few puffs of white smoke to go on the left hand page, and tied a bunch of smaller balloons to the rear carriage.

I had not intended to do this for a challenge, but there is a new challenge blog this week called Crafting for all seasons, and they suggested a scrapbook page as one possibility for their first challenge which is Anything Goes, so I shall be linking this to their blog.

Just forget the world

I thought I might not have time to make a card for Daring cardmakers this week, but their challenge was to be inspired by a Cold Play song, Chasing cars, and I love that whole CD. Also I need a male birthday card for a family member next week, so I decided to have a go, and here is what I made.

The stamp is by Crafty Individuals.

I have actually used a Christmas backing paper from the Artylicious CD, Season's Greetings, but the holly is hidden underneath the image.

The panels are cream card distressed with antique linen, tea dye and rusty hinge ink pads.

The letter tiles are from an A4 sheet in my stash that is ancient, and its origin is forgotten. I like it because I have a Woodware punch that it fits perfectly.

The swirl was cut using a Marrianne die, and sprayed with That Special Touch, copper mica mist.

The lace edging is a Martha Stewart punch, and the birthday greetings is a copper peel-off.



I am entering this card for the Daring Cardmakers' Challenge: Chasing Cars.
Truly Scrumptious Challenge 57: Anything goes
CrfatyCatz Challenge 83: Anything goes

Magic!

We are making kinetic cards for the Bah! Humbug! challenge this week. There are not so many entries this time so maybe folk are finding it a bit difficult. I decided to make a magic slider card, a technique I learned with Hazel from Horseshoe crafts, back in the days when it was my local craft shop. I spent many happy days in her workshops, and learned lots of new ideas. I haven't made another card like this since then, so when I got a bit stuck I looked on the net for tutorials to jog my memory. I found several but the one that followed the same method as I was trying to use was by Christina of Card-Making-Magic. Thank you Christina.

I chose some beige linen effect card for my stamped image, which is a cute nativity scene from Penny Black. I stamped it with Memento tuxedo black so I could use copic markers to add some colour. Then I stamped it again with Stazon on to acetate, and assembled it as per the tutorial. To decorate the front frame I used a home made script stamp (using imagepac), and a variety of small silhouette stamps from SeeD's, Stampendous pefectly clear, and Crafty Individuals. Because of the textured surface of the card, these did not work too well, so I touched them up with a black memento pen. I have found this such a useful little item to keep to hand. A small piece of organza ribbon threaded through the eyelet will encourage the recipient to 'pull' and reveal the magic.

Although a child would love this mechanism, it is perhaps not colourful enough to attract them, but even an adult would enjoy the surprise element of it.

I am entering this card in Bah! Humbug! Challenge 20; Kinetic Cards

Moving back to traditional colours

Yes, I'm moving back to traditional Christmas colours for my card this week.

I used the same CD, Crafters' Companion Vintage Christmas, as I did for my previous card, and this time I chose a Santa image, because it was in a circular frame that I thought would go well with my scalloped circle Marianne die. I wanted the image behind the die cut with the decoupaged layers spilling over on top of it, so I needed to cut out the centre of the frame. I got careless here and left myself with only about a quarter of a centremeter all round to fix it in place. Fortunately the layers also helped and I mounted the whole thing directly onto the base instead of using foam pads, so that held it all together. It was rather dull against the green base card so I cut a panel of thick, cream parchment and edged it with a scalloped lace punch by Martha Stewert. Then I stamped all over it with my all time favourite Christmas holly stamp from Penny Black. It is just perfect for lifting a plain back ground. I assmbled it all and added a strip of green velvet, scalloped ribbon from Cosmo Cricket. The two jelly embellishments come from a Vaessen-creative Christmas scrapbooking kit. I stuck the lower one a bit off line, but as my eyesight is not too good, being slightly crooked is almost a hallmark of all my crafting, so I am not going to risk trying to move it.

I am entering this card in this challenge:

Craftyhazelnuts Christmas Challenge 21; Let's see some scallops

Am I Stressed or Distressed?

Not at all, but that is the theme for the card I have made today. I needed a fairly straightforward design as I am a bit close to the challenge deadline so I chose to print out an image from the Crafters' Companion CD, Vintage Christmas. It was a decoupage sheet but I didn't feel she needed to be layered. She is so sweet just as she is.

I matted her onto some torn card from the colour core'dinations Chocolate Box stack. For the base card I chose white and one of the glimmer mist screens, the smaller swirl. I used sponge to dab on ink from two Distress ink pads, walnut dye and tumbled glass, moving the screen around so the whole card was covered. I used the same two ink pads to distress around the edges of the card. I mounted the image at an angle and across the base I glued some off-white lace topped with red organza ribbon and a bow. A couple of flowers from my stash, lightly coloured and joined with a flower brad, finished it off.

I am entering this card in:
Craftyhazelnuts Christmas Challenge 20, Don't get stressed about Distressing.
Creative Craft challenges; Distressed/Vintage
The Paper Shelter Challenge 14; Distress to Impress

Butterfly, flutter by

Since I was a very small child, I have had a deep interest in nature, including all the creepy crawlies (much to my mum and sister's horror!), but my real favourites are butterflies. So I was a bit disappointed on moving to Spain, to discover that there are not a lot of butterflies around here, and certainly no very exotic ones. But one afternoon I found this rather sad specimen, dead of course, by my gate. I decided I could use it for something crafty, so from this photos I made a black and white image. I then made a clear stamp of it using my imagepac kit.

Next I resized it, drew some free-hand flowers, torn netting and swirls and leaves, and scanned these into the computer. I then computer generated some text and using a mixture of Publisher, paint and Corel PSP, I cobbled together this collage. Unfortunately I was unable to get the contrast balance quite right between the various elements so I never managed to make a successful stamp of this, but I stored it to use as a 'digistamp'.

So this week I decided to dig it out and make a card. I was working to this sketch, and I found some lovely butterfly paper that I remember buying at the Hobby craft show a few years back, to make the side panels. For the centre I chose a fairly plain antique gold paper.

I wanted to keep the butterfly close to its natural colours so I stamped it onto white card and coloured it with copic markers. To make it more of a feature, I cut it out, rubbed it all over with a versamark pad and heat embossed it. I only used one layer of fine powder because I wanted to be able to shape the wings a little without cracking the glaze.

I then thought I would use just part of the collage for my script panel, so I printed this onto white card that I had coloured with a very pale copic pen so that it didn't look too stark. Because I wanted to add colour with the same copic pens as I had used on the butterfly, I went into my printer properties and increased the ink volume to maximum and as soon as it came through the printer I threw fine embossing powder all over it. You do have to work quickly to do this, but it gives a good image for colouring or painting. I then linked the central panel to the colours of the side panel butterflies by covering the joins with pale pink sticky ribbon top and bottom, and a matching brighter pink down the sides. The glossy butterfly was attached under the panel, and three pink flowers from my stash completed the design, and here it is.

I am entering this card in the following challenges.
The first challenge on the new Card and a Half Blog; Following a sketch.
Daring Cardmakers: The Darlin' Bugs of May
One Stitch at a Time Challenge 62; Anything goes.
Scrappy Frogs Challenge; Anything goes.

Something a bit different.

I sometimes get quite carried away designing the front of a card, but the base is nearly always a straight forward A6 or DL. This week I followed an online tutorial for making a 'Joy-fold' card and decided to have a go. I started with a 15 cm square, white card, though I actually trimmed this down by half a centimetre each way, and cut away half of the front flap. For the smaller card I used a 10 x 20cm piece of the same card, folded in half.

I had already decided which stamp I was using so I wanted two pieces of blue/snowy card for the backing. I found one sheet in my stash (origin unknown), and used it to cover the inner, right-hand flap. I couldn't find a suitable second piece so I printed out the mid blue, 'Joy to the world' sheet from the Artylicious Seasons' Greetings CD, and used a small piece of this to cover the front, left flap.

For the small card I stamped my image (Anita's stamps) onto a piece of very pale snowflake magazine paper. The polar bear didn't stand out as well as I had hoped so I tried stamping him again on some textured paper. I bought this paper many moons ago, when I saw it used to print beautiful baby photos on Create and craft. It has a soft, almost furry feel, but I cannot recall what it was called. I have to admit that I have used very little of it, though I have occasionally stamped soft baby toys on it for scrapbook pages. Anyway, it was a nice feel for this little bear, but he came out very muted, so I drew over the stamped lines with a royal blue permanent marker and that was a big improvement. I cut him out and glued him over the original image, and added stickles to the snowflakes. On the white card, this did not look too good, so I first mounted him onto some blue card, the back of an old Christmas card, and then mounted this onto the white. The small card was tucked under the front flap, so it opened from the left, centred, and glued in place. To add interest I used two strips of peel-off, sparkley snowflakes down each side. I then searched through my stash and found the big snowflake, again, origin unknown, (I must learn to catalogue my stash more carefully!), added a large colourless gem to its centre and stuck it in the top, left corner, to hold the flap down.

Inside the smaller card, I stamped one of my favourite Christmas script stamps by Crafty Individuals, on the left side. and then framed it, and the right side with my most used set of tapestry stamps, Starry Winter Night, leaving a space in the centre of the right-hand side for my greetings. This was, of course, done before I glued the smaller card in place!

I am entering this in the Bah! Humbug! Challenge 19; Snowflakes,
the ABC Christmas Challenge 10; J is for Joy-fold Card
Craft Your Days Away Challenge 20; White + one other colour

New challenge blog about to start

This is a new challenge blog which is about to start operating. You can find out all about it here.They are posting their first challenge tomorrow and I am hoping to give it a go. This is partly so that I start making some cards other than Christmas ones, and also because it is mainly a monthly challenge, so I stand some chance of keeping up with it. They say they will also be adding a few 'just for fun' challenges along the way, but for now the main monthly one will be enough for me. So watch this space.

Going Green and Having Fun

This week, when I saw that the challenge for CraftyHazelnut was to take inspiration from the photo on the left, I immediately thought of this one (on the right). I cannot find the original photo but this is a cropped one that I did for scrapbooks I am making for each of my sons. When they were little I made three of these cheerful felt chappies and every year, in early December, as soon as the decorations came out, they hung from our fire surround (The fire was only ornamental not functional!). It wasn't until twelfth night, when the decorations came down, that the boys got to eat the sweets in the hidden pockets behind Santa's tummy. Anyway I decided to cut him out and use him as the main feature on my card.

As I am also going green this week, I looked around for some green items and something I could recycle. Years ago (in another life!) I was manager of a nursery school and I started collecting all the colourful envelope liners that came with messages from parents. I soon had a big folder full of these, and although I did use several for my original intention of doing some iris folding, the rest have been lurking at the back of a cupboard ever since. Rooting through them I found two nice green patterned pieces which were plain dark green on the reverse, and I thought I could use them. I then decided to try something that I have read about on another blog. I have tried to find the post again but without success, so this was not my idea but I cannot attribute it to anyone else right now. In the article I read, the inside of a 'soda-pop' can had been used to make a die cut reindeer. I had kept a couple of beer cans from my recent visitors so I could try this, so I used a sharp knife to remove the top and base of the can, and cut up the side, and washed it carefully. I then stuck this to a piece of card and put it through my cuttlebug with a marianne circle die. It cut well though the embossing didn't show. I felt this was considerably tougher than craft foil and I wouldn't do it too often for fear of blunting the die blades. However I was left with a pleasing metal circle which I then coloured by dabbing with lettuce, meadow and a touch of red pepper alcohol inks.

I measured this circle and used Publisher to print the photo the right size to fit over it. I decided to mat the circlular frame onto some plain green paper and then glued the Santa on top. I chose dark green from the DCWV Christmas cardstock stack to make an A6 base card, and covered the front with the two green envelope liners, leaving a small border all around. I was looking for some ribbon to cover the join when I found this strip of green fabric leaves. In a mad moment, I then cut the length I needed and trimmed the sides of each rounded leaf to make it look like holly! I cut two swirls with a marianne die from the dark green reverse of the envelopes and glued them behind the top of the Santa circle, letting the lower swirls curl over the frame, and covering the sets of three leaves with tiny, punched holly leaves. Finally I used red perfect pearls to add berries to the holly swirl and ribbon. Here is the finished card.

Sometimes it is easiest to make a quick card for challenges without putting too much time and effort in to them, but this was fun to make and I enjoyed being a bit inventive, and trying something new. I am entering this card for

Bah! Humbug Challenge 18; Going Green - Recycling or Shades of Green, and CraftyHazelnuts Christmas Challenge 19: Inspiration from a photograph.

An Award!

Thanks to my crafting friend Veronica from vroncards who has given me this award. The idea is to pass it on to seven recently discovered blogs. I found this quite difficult as all the blogs I follow are recently discovered as I am a fairly new blogger myself, but several of them have already had the award. So I am sticking with six at the minute. But before I list them here I am supposed to tell you seven random things about myself. I will try not to repeat my 26(!) facts that I wrote when I did 'My ABC' - see my post on 1st May.

So here are seven facts about me.
1). I am nearly 64 and I have lived in fifteen houses. Hopefully this will be my last one!
2). I have three dogs and four cats who are all animals rescued from abandonment or neglect.
3). I have four brothers and sisters who are octogenarians, and two others who still have a way to go before they get there! (I'm the baby!)
4). I enjoy baking and last Christmas I made over 50 dozen mince-pies to sell for charity.
5). I am a Christian and regularly attend a church in a nearby village with a small group of other ex-pats.
6). I live permanently in Andalucia, Spain and I love the sunshine and relaxed way of life.
7). I love crafting, especially rubber stamping, and am still learning new skills all the time.

And here are the seven bloggers I have passed the award on to. Thank you all for your constant inspiration.

1). Jean at My Crafty Corner
2). Saskia at So Very Sassy
3). Angie at Crazicards Crafty Blog
4). Lyn at Creative Lynks
5) Hazel at My Crafty Outlook
6) Ruth and Erin at Celtic Crafters

If you feel able to accept this award, please tell us seven random facts that we may not already know about yourself, and pass the award on to seven other recently discovered bloggers. You can right click on the image to save it, and repost it on your own blog.

Snow in summer!

It seems strange to be making an icy scene when I am sitting here in a thin summer dress with the sun pouring in through the window, but my aim was to make a card that incorporates ice, a die cut and the colour blue, so that I could enter it for two challenges, something that I don't normally do. And here is what I made.

For making backgrounds I am a big fan of the Dreamweaver stencils, of which I have several. This time I chose the snowflake background (no longer available I don't think) and used it in a rather different way. I layed it onto plain paper and scanned it, and used the picture to cut it out with my Craft Robo. It took me half an hour to pick out all the little pieces but the result is this very delicate web of snowflakes which I think was well worth the effort. (The photo is not very good because I took it in artificial light, but it is cut from silver paper and laid onto dark blue card).


Next I printed out a piece of indigo paper from the Artylicious CD Seasons' Greetings and used it to cover a white card, leaving a narrow border all round. I then used a glue pen to attach the snowflakes.

For the panel I stamped an image from a Woodware set of clear stamps, and added a little colour with copic pens. I cut it out using a nestabilities die, and then used the corresponding scalloped rectangle die to cut a mat from blue card sprayed with 'that special touch' silver mica mist. I mounted this onto the base card and decided it needed something else. So I cut a large snowflake from very pale blue pearlescent paper, using a craft robo template bought from www.craftsuprint.co.uk, then made it smaller and cut it again from white paper. In the centre I stuck a pale blue circle cut using the smallest classic circle nestability die, and found a tiny greeting and snowflake to stick on it.

The whole card was a little flat, and I felt the dark blue had made my snowflakes look more grey than silver, so I livened it up by randomly adding some stickles Icicle glitter glue all over the design.

The challenges I am entering this card for are ABC Christmas Challenge; 'I' for Indigo, Ice and Inspiration
and Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge 18; 'Using a die cut'

Nine ladies dancing

Yes I have returned to my Penny Black, Twelve Days of Christmas stamps for this week's challenge. They are great fun and this little hedgehog is dancing in a very fetching 'ruffled' dress which fitted nicely with the theme of Pleats and Ruffles.

In doing these challenges I am trying to use something each week that has hibernated in the back of my cupboards for far too long. I wasn't sure I had anything for this week but, lo and behold, I came across this length of ruffled lace. Goodness knows where or why I bought it, but it fitted the bill. So I stamped the hedgehog onto white card, cut her out with a nestabilities circle die and coloured her with watercolour pens to match the lace. I then 'pleated' the lace to fit around the circle, using basic PVA gue to hold it in place. I glued a second circle of card on the back of it and left it under a very substantial book for the night, so today it is fairly flat and secure. I then unearthed a set of pink and purple Christmas papers from a magazine giveaway, and cut a strip to go down the centre of a pink 15cm square card. I mounted the circle centrally and then used a Marianne die to make a small swirl and flower to go in the corner. It was quite pretty but not very Christmassy so I used silver peel-off strips of holly leaves down each side, added a silver greeting in the bottom corner and a colourless jewel to the flower centre. I made this card for the Bah! Humbug! Challenge 17: Pleats and Ruffles.

ABC of me

This is a bit of fun that I saw on my friend Jill's blog, and she suggested that we might like to have a go as well. So copy the ABC headings on to your blog and have a go. Let me know if you do, so I can learn a bit more about you.

Age: 64 later this year, but who's counting?
Bed Size: King size definitely. You need it in the heat of a Spanish summer!
Chore you hate: Most housework, because with the dust out here you can never win.
Dogs:Three and four cats. Hubby does more with the dogs than I do. I'm a cat lady really.
Essential start of your day: A mug of tea; proper loose leaf tea made in a teapot!
Favourite Colour: All the colours of the rainbow. I can't settle on one. It depends what mood I'm in.
Gold or silver: Gold usually. My most treasured piece is Mum's gold chain, but I like silver when I am wearing blue, and I use both in my craft.
Height: 5’4½″ That ½ is very important!
Instruments I play or have played: Only grade 1 level on a piano because it was necessary to get into teacher training college, but I have a son who is a top class rock drummer and one who writes and sings his own songs and plays piano, guitar, saxaphone and anything else he can get his hands on.
Job Title: Retired nursery school manager.
Kids: Five sons, seven grandchildren, and one great-grandson on the way.
Live: For the last 20 years I lived in Oswestry on the Welsh/English border, but now we live permanently in Andalucia, Spain.
Mum’s Name: Anna Hilda Julia. I always thought that sounded very grand. Mostly she was known as Hilda.
Nickname: Only Kathy as a teenager and then Kate. Really I am Kathleen
Overnight hospital stays: As a small child to have tonsils out, then in my thirties for a spinal op, followed by a post-miscarriage D&C, and more recently major surgery on my shoulder.
Pet Peeve: When I have struggled for hours to do something on my computer and my husband comes and does it in minutes!
Quote from a movie: I rarely watch films and haven't watched any closely enough to quote them now.
Right or left handed: Right, but I learned to manage with my left after my shoulder op. I'm very independent and hated relying on others for help.
Siblings: Five sisters and two brothers (Only one brother alive now), and we are all close and keep in touch 'across the miles'.
Time you wake up: 7.30 to take the dogs out, but if I have an after lunch siesta I sometimes need a crowbar to get me going again!
Underwear: Yes, thank you, always, but I go for comfort over elegance these days.
Vegetables you dislike: Broad beans.
What makes you run late: Life!
X-rays you’ve had done: Lots. Feet (calcium spur), both wrists (carpel tunnel and torn ligaments), spine including myeloscopy(with injected dye), arm (collapsed bicep), shoulder (rotor cuff and torn muscles), leg (torn ham-string), MRI, etc. I'm a bit of a crock really or just clumsy, but they usually manage to put me together again!
Yummy food you make: I bake cakes, pastries biscuits and make marmalade and jam, but my speciality is mince pies at Christmas.
Zoo animal: Orangutangs and Tigers.

I can't do a blog with no photos at all so I'll leave you with this one that goes with my last comment 'Tigers'. It shows a magical moment that I will treasure for ever, and was taken at a Buddhist temple in Kanchanaburi, Thailand. Just look at the size of those feet!

Now you know a bit about me. I wonder whether any of it fits the mental picture you have formed if you have visited my crafting blog before. I know that the new Chocolate Baroque website with the members photos on it, has given me quite a few surprises. It's good to get to know my crafting friends a bit better.