When crafting goes wrong and Sissix Bigshot Repair

After reading this artical: When Crafting Goes Wrong by Susanna Boyd over at Papercraft Planet I knew I had to share this.

 

Earlier this year I broke the above piece on my Bigshot in a similar manner as Sussanna did.  I contacted Sizzix to find out if I could purchase a replacement for this bit, which they then offered to replace free of charge.  I had to wait quite some time as the part was ordered from America but it was worth the wait.  So the lesson to this story is simple be careful not to make you sandwich to big and if you did know who to call:)

 

Big thank you to Sizzix for excellant customer service and support.

My Memories Suite Freebies

Completely customizable projects using MyMemories Suite. Or if you don't have MyMemories Software, you can still download them. The Elements and QuickPages are in .png format and the papers are in .jpg format which are usable in any software and include Quick Pages, and all of the papers and elements used in creating them.

If you would like to try MyMemories Software check out MyMemories Suite, the #1 Rated Scrapbook Software and use my DISCOUNT CODE (STMMMS9893) during your checkout to receive: $10 off the software purchase and a $10 gift certificate to the online store. You can also use this Discount code when purchasing other digital items from their website

 

This Digital Kit Includes:

3 Digital Papers

11 Page Elements

2 Quick Pages

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This Digital Kit Includes:

2 Digital Papers

11 Page Elements

2 Quick Pages

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This Digital Kit Includes:

2 Digital Papers

12 Page Elements

2 Quick Pages

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These freebies will be updated every 14 days, so remember to call back regularly.

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Quick & simple stress reliever

I decided to share a super simple stress-reliever that I stumbled upon to calm my nerves, get focused, relax and ready to craft. It's an easy breathing-technique that works wonders in just about a minute and is something you can do anywhere, anytime.
Ready to get your de-stressin' on? Hit it!
Have a look at Miss Modish's blog for some great inspiration.  Come with me to get a dose of Mojo.

Fauzia's Rose Rolls

Here is my version of Fuizia'a Rose Roll.  It was a great hit with every one. I made them for our family picnic tomorrow but typical kids they simply had to try one each and one each became all of them when dad also had to try one.

 Oh well I guess the BBQ planned for today will have to be more moved to tomorrow as everyone is well fed:) Thanks Fauzia I will be making more of you recipes in future. You can find this and other great recipes here: http://www.fauziaskitchenfun.com/

I cheated and used Ready made puff pastry and also changed the filling a bit to suit my families taste.

I call it Fauzia's Spicy Chicken and Mushroom filling:

5 Chicken Breasted diced
125 ml boiling water
2 chicken Stock cubes, disolved in the above
1 tsp Salt (Aromat for those in South Africa adds lovely flavour too)
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp basil
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp dried chili flakes (I'm not brave enough to chop them myself)

Mixed the ingredients and marinate the chicken in the liquid for an hour before boiling it together until all liquid has evaporated.

4 Shallots or 2 onions finely chopped
250g mushrooms sliced
2tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 cup milk

Heat the butter and fry the mushrooms and onions until the onions are soft.  Add the precooked Chicken mixture and fry for a few minutes.  Stir in the flour, add the milk and cook until thick.  Leave to cool completely.

Prepare the rolls as Fauzia suggest and cook.

If you are using puff pastry like lazy me you can fill a pan dish and simply cover with the pastry, brush with egg and bake in a preheated hot oven for 20-25 minutes or until the pastry is golden and puffed up.

Hope you enjoy.

A Crafty Christmas by Craftwork Cards

Look what I just got. If you are a part of the Privilege Club this lovely parcel will cost you only £9.45 including Delivery. I just love the chiffon ribbon that came in the box. I may not be arround for a while as I am going to play now:)

Compatible ink prices makes craft CD's fun again

I started using compatible ink recently because of the lovely Craft Cd's available.

I was always under the impression that these would damage your printer but as my old printer reached what I though was the end of it life, I started expermimenting. Be careful however as some companies sells rubbish that are not colour true or only print a few pages.

At First Call Inks on Amazon I found as good as the original ink and they last as long as original but at a fraction of the cost, so try them for excellent inks. 

Digi crafting has never been so affordable at last I do not feel guilding about printing everything I like and deciding later what I want to use.  

Will tell you later how may Craft CD's I have, believe me you will be shocked, who know maybe I can evern inspire you to try using them as ofter as I do:)

Free Digital Scrapbooking Kits and Discount on purchases

There is over 149 free items available from the MyMemories Suite online design shop. Simply click to download items directly to your computer. Creating a new account or login to an existing account will be required but no payment is necessary. Hurry and download your items today, they are free for a limited time only.

Here is just a few pictures to show you what you can get:

Calender Grids

As if this is not enough motivation to create a free account and get a easy to use scrapbooking package you can use my DISCOUNT CODE (STMMMS9893) during your checkout and receive $10 off the software purchase and a $10 gift certificate to the online store.

My Memories Suite Freebies

Completely customizable projects using MyMemories Suite. Or if you don't have MyMemories Software, you can still download them. The Elements and QuickPages are in .png format and the papers are in .jpg format which are usable in any software and include Quick Pages, and all of the papers and elements used in creating them.

If you would like to try MyMemories Software check out MyMemories Suite, the #1 Rated Scrapbook Software and use my DISCOUNT CODE (STMMMS9893) during your checkout to receive: $10 off the software purchase and a $10 gift certificate to the online store. You can also use this Discount code when purchasing other digital items from their website

 

This Digital Kit Includes:

2 Digital Papers

14 Page Elements

2 Quick Pages

Download Here

This Digital Kit Includes:

4 Digital Papers

20 Page Elements

2 Quick Pages

Download Here

This Digital Kit Includes:

5 Digital Papers

24 Page Elements

2 Quick Pages

Download Here

These freebies will be updated every 14 days, so remember to call back regularly.

You can follow My Memories Suite at:

Blog- http://blog.mymemories.com/

Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/pages/MyMemories/140359372717593

Twitter- http://twitter.com/#!/mymemoriessuite

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/MyMemoriesSuite

Friday I became a Runner

Currently I am seriously overweight (see the Photos taken Friday before my first training session) and the most exercise I do picking my son up from school so today I share with you my most embarresing photo's, but it is for a good cause. I'm fundraising for The Royal British Legion by running The Poppy 5k Run in Hastings. The race will start at 11.00 a.m. on Sunday 28th October 2012.

Please help me make a difference by making a donation to my Virgin Money Giving page. To find out more about what I'm doing and why, please visit http://www.virginmoneygiving.com/MariaanLawson where you can also sponsor me online.

The Poppy Run is new national series of 5k fun runs, open to all, which aims to raise funds and awareness for the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal. With the emphasis on fun you don’t need to be super fit to take part in our 5k runs; whether you run it, jog it, walk it or even crawl it, it is not important as long as you do it! 

Charity Runs for a Great Cause.  2011 saw the last surviving British soldier from the Great War pass away and it sees the 90th anniversary of the Royal British Legion. The intervening years have seen countless soldiers, sailors and airman risk and sometimes lose their lives so we could enjoy our freedom.  Iraq is still fresh in our minds and our troops are still serving in Afghanistan.  And it is not just military personnel that the Royal British Legion supports, it is their families too.  Giving up one Sunday Morning and getting active for 5km is a small effort and a very easy way to say ‘thanks’.

You can follow my training progress on my blog  and if you live locally I can use all the support and cheering possible so please come scream your lungs out to support me..

House-Mouse Project book and Insert CD Card

I love Joanna Sheen's books and CD's and have most of the older ones. With me being a full time mum it means my crafting budget is basically non-existent so when I do get something new I have to be able to use it for a lot of projects and these two items will definitely be used for a lot of items. Here is a card I made showing how well the two work together and to send in for my Paper Certificate course.

Front



Opening the card reveals a smaller card on the inside

Mirror image insert

Images and background paper with small flowers from Project 11 in the House-Mouse Project book cd Insert and background with large flower from House-Mouse Insert CD both by Joanna Sheen
Card:   Centura Pearl (lilac and aqua)
Paper:  Satin Finish Paper 100gsm for backing paper and Printable Decoupage Paper 150gsm for topper
Ribbon: From local Haberdasery Store
Pen: White gel pen for Faux Sticthing
Die Cutting: Joy Butterfly border and Spellbinders Classic Rectangles Large and Large Labels Embossing: Spellbinders M-Bossabilities Splendid
Time: 3 hours

I was inspired to make this card by a card I saw on Little Claire's blog. Thanks Gemma for posting the instructions on how to make it.

Hope you like what I have created for you today and do pop over to Joanna Sheen to pick up these two products.

Wordbook for a Special Boy

I made a little Word book for my son that was feeling left.  I am trying to work my way through my stash as I have loads of discontinued products that I never used.

I used Red cardstock and red paper from a Brights Paperstack, not sure what make as it is as its been in my stash for a while. The little boys are a clear Woodware stamps set that I stamped with Stazon Black on white card and coloured with watercolour pencils.  The letters was cut with my Xyron Personal Die cutting machine.

David really loved it and went to bed with it under his pillow, which made the 'V' a bit wrinkled, knew I should have taken the photo straight after making it.

"Unleashing The Creative Child Within You" Review

I am sure a lot of you have seen this Advert and wondered if the book is all it promised to be.....

Back when we were kids creativity came naturally to us. Everything was possible and our prolific imagination was the only limit we knew.
Through the years we have grown apart from our inner creative child and along with that – have lost our pristine and utter joy of creation.

In this e-book I will pave your way back to your inner creative child, brick by brick.

“Unleashing The Creative Child Within You” will explain why you became distant from your core creativity and will reveal the secret to getting it back.

With exercises designed specifically to help you find the inner child within you, regain its confidence and unleash it – you are bound to get your mojo back faster than you think.

Get “Unleashing The Creative Child Within You” for your Kindle
for only $4.99.

You can read the Kindle book on Kindle devices, on your smart phones or on your PC or MAC.

Well after 2 babies in less then 2 years, packing up all my craft goodies, a few failed house purchases and then at last a  house move, I felt pretty down, demotivated and uncreative so I thought I have nothing to loose but a few pounds if it does not live up to its promised.

When I got my pdf download, which you can purchase directly by contacting Avital here, I though this little book will definately not get my creative juices flowing but started reading it anyway.

I was up till the early morning reading it and started doing the 10 Exercises in the book straight away.  Now halfway throught the exercises I can now definately say: If you are looking for an immediate creativity boost, buy this book! 

Not only do I feel inspired to craft again but I am also more in touch with who I really am.

Printing Mirror image with a Canon Printer

As most of you probibly know I am a big Canon fan and my printer, scanner and cameras are all, yes you guessed it CANON.  So here is a little tip I learn recently:

To print mirror image with a Canon Printer is a little more complicated them with some of the other printers available. Here is how I do it

1. From the application you are printing from, click File, and then click Print.

2. Click 'Properties' or 'Preferences' in the Print dialog box.

3. On the Main tab, select the desired T-shirt Transfer in the 'Media Type' section, using the pull-    down menu.
Hope this helps those of you who like me have more craft CD's then you will ever use, but like to play around.  I used this recently with Joanna Sheen's House Mouse Inserts CD-Rom that I used with her House Mouse Project Book with CD-Rom.  As most of the UK followers know her CD's have PDF files on them and unless you have the full version of Adobe Acrobat, which most of us do not have, you have to use your printer to do the mirror image.  (Or if you are not lazy like me you could use the Snaposhot tool to the paste it into you regular photo editing software to adjust.)

Any way of to craft some more will have photo's of the above mentioned project on shortly.

My Memories Suite Freebies

Completely customizable projects using MyMemories Suite. Or if you don't have MyMemories Software, you can still download them. The Elements and QuickPages are in .png format and the papers are in .jpg format which are usable in any software and include Quick Pages, and all of the papers and elements used in creating them.

If you would like to try MyMemories Software check out MyMemories Suite, the #1 Rated Scrapbook Software and use my DISCOUNT CODE ( STMMMS9893) during your checkout to receive: $10 off the software purchase and a $10 gift certificate to the online store. You can also use this Discount code when purchasing other digital items from their website

 

 

This Digital Kit Includes:

• 9 Digital Papers
• 11 Page Elements
• 26 Monogram Characters
• 7 Quick Pages

Download Here

 

This Digital Kit Includes:

 

• 3 Digital Papers
• 5 Page Elements
• 7 Quick Pages

Download Here

This Digital Kit Includes:

 

2 Digital Papers

4 Page Elements

2 Quick Pages

Download Here

These freebies will be updated every 14 days, so remember to call back regularly.

You can follow My Memories Suite at:

Blog- http://blog.mymemories.com/

Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/pages/MyMemories/140359372717593

Twitter- http://twitter.com/#!/mymemoriessuite

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/MyMemoriesSuite