Ruby Update ...

Hello Everyone,

It's me Ruby and this is me and my best friend Dougal playing in the sea.

We have a lovely time when we go to the beach and it's really cool in the water when it is hot.

Today I wanted to show you a little video of when we went to Lytham and how clever I am at walking on a log with  Dougal.

All I wanted was the treat that Vickie had in her hand and I got it in the end. We had such fun jumping over the log.

When we got home I had time for a snooze before it was tea time and I had some delicious chicken for mine.

And tomorrow I can play all over again

See you again later ...

Hugs Ruby xx

Here's my kitchen ...

Hi Everybody,

Well at long last the kitchen is completely finished and here is the video to show you the result.

I am really pleased with everything and it is a lovely fresh room to be in. 

Griff has worked hard from stripping out the old one and then transforming it into this beautiful space and it surely is a credit to him.

The further differences in the above photo are the doors at each end of the room are now white and we had some blinds fitted yesterday. 

Now we can sit back and enjoy it 

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

Follow Your Dreams ...

Hi Everybody,

Last week I was asked by a lady called Veronica if I  had any Birthday cards that I could donate to her charity.  She is part of   FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS  which is a group of people who help children with learning difficulties.

Many of these children never receive a Birthday card and it is the charities aim to make sure that each child will get some on their special day.

I was delighted to help out and I sent her a box of 125 cards for children of all ages ... boys and girls ... complete with envelopes to use as and when she likes. 

And I have more that I will send too.

I also offered to add their address to my blog post to see if any of you kind souls would like to do the same.

Many of you make cards and then they sit there never to be used. 

This is s way to put them to good use and give pleasure to children around the UK.

So if you are interested then either contact her or send your cards for the attention of 

Veronica Preece

 Fundraising Assistant.

 Follow Your Dreams, 

Gwynfa House, 

Main Road, 

Church Village,

 Pontypridd. 

CF38 1RN.

and tell her where you have read about her request

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

Card & Gift Winner ...

Hi Everybody,

Hello on this beautiful Saturday morning and I hope you all have good things planned in the lovely sunshine.

One little Spaniel has had some fun playing in the sea and here is Ruby running in the waves 

The draw for the card and gift has been done and the winner  is ...

Sue Pollock

please email me with your postal address to

christina@card-making-magic.com

and they will be on their way to you straight away.

On another note ... my kitchen is in and working but not finished yet. 

There are all the new tiles to add to walls and floor and the decorating to be done. And once it is done I will show you the complete change.

It is looking really modern and I am very pleased with it.

The hold up has been pieces missing from the order and Griff has had to keep chasing them up. 

But it is a credit to him and all the hard work he has done fitting this alone

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

What a mess !!!

Hi Everybody,

At present I am living in a builders yard because Griff is putting a new kitchen in for us. I am having to do the best I can with a microwave and kettle in the dining room ... so needless to say we are eating out more than usual 

This is what my kitchen looked like as we started to rip things out.

The blue stuff has been there for almost twenty years. 

Very old fashioned now and so it had to go.

Just a few hours later it looked like this. 

Everything is gone apart from the solitary item which is the dishwasher standing in the middle of the wall

A few hours after this and even the floor tiles where up.

And now this is where I am up to with the new stuff going in.

It's going to look a whole lot different and I will show you the end result once it is all completed

But for now you can all feel sorry for me while my house is messed up. 

Even Ruby wonders whats happening here

So all together now .... Aaaawwww 

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

Up to Date ...

Hi Everybody,

What a week this has been and I have lots to be grateful for.

On Tuesday it was my birthday and last Sunday my Daughter and Grandson arranged a Sunday lunch for the family at a really lovely restaurant.

I had flowers and gifts and lots of gift cards to spend as I want. 

My Granddaughters bought me Pandora charm and so I went to town and got the bracelet and more charms to add to it. 

It is in the new Rose colour and it is sparkly and beautiful and I shall wear it a lot. Especially today when I go to my Grandsons restaurant this evening.

I used all of the vouchers and gift cards that I had been given and got lots of goodies. Perfume ... New shirts ... New sun glasses ... and lots more. Then we went to lunch and that was a lovely meal too.

Today my YouTube followers are  way over 52,000 and this week they have rolled over to 10 million views ... can you believe those figures. I am amazed but so very very happy about it.

And to top it all I have a brand new collection of 6x6 Card & Box die sets coming out so watch this space. This is a size that many of you have asked for and it will be with us soon. And it too is a beautiful collection

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

Aldi Brushes ...

Hi Everybody,

A little while I told you about this fabulous find in Aldi of these brushes that are perfect for blending inks.

I bought loads of them to use with my Distress Oxides and they were so good I went back the next day and bought some more.

I got the small brushes at three in a a pack for £2.99

But where to store them was the next step and so I bought this square glass vase and it holds them perfectly so that they can sit on my worktop

At the moment there are thirty in the container and that is enough for me to use with my Oxide inks

You can clean the ink off the brushes with paper towels or baby wipes so that you can use another shade on the same brush.

By that I mean I would stick to shades of one colour and not change the colours completely.

Two shades of pink wont make that much difference but if you add a blue and then blend with a yellow you could get a green and if that is not what you wanted on your project then .....  OOOOOOPPPPSSS !!

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

Ruby Update

Hello Everyone,

Sorry I have not been around for a little while but my mum has been really busy showing you her new collection

And I have to tell you that I have not been well.

You know that I like to play in the woods with my friend Dougal.

Well I also like to chew sticks and one of them splintered and got stuck between my tooth and my gum.

My face was swollen and my mum took me to see Mr. Vet

He said it was very infected right down to the root and I had to have the tooth removed.

 Here I am feeling sorry for my self. But that was a week ago and now I am as right as rain. I was in pain with the wood but now I feel really well again and back to my old tricks.

And just to show you what my mum has been doing here is one of her lovely stepper cards.

She has done this one in gold with all those butterflies and she did this style of card in a video for you to see.

So more from my mum tomorrow and I will be back again soon.

Bye for now ...

Love Ruby xx

A gift for Carter

Hi Everybody,

I had to show you the gift that I have made for my Great Grandson Carter who is just a year old. 

I thought that these would look wonderful on his bedroom wall and I bought the frames from Dunelm

The Critters are from Tonic Studios and they are a lot of fun to work with. You can make them any colour you wish for even more fun

They are perfect and my Grand daughter loved them for her son and she will get his daddy to put them up

Carter loves animals and is learning to say the names of them and so these should encourage him to name these too.

 I used some Spellbinders for the added pieces to the pictures like the palm fronds and the bamboo shoots

The supplies will be listed at the bottom of the page for you to see the ones I have used

And don't forget I did a video showing how I did one of the characters ... Cute Critters

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

Weekend Away ...

.

Hi Everybody,

Last weekend was brilliant and you know part of it as I went to Alexandra Palace to the craft show there.

I met Christine Smith from Crafti Potential for the first time even though we have chatted and been friends for over a year on Facebook. 

We met up with Natalie Helyer and Amy Gray from Craft Stash and had a good natter.

Here we are with the large stained glass window and it was beautiful

And a really big THANK YOU to ALL the ladies who visit my blog and came over to make them selves known and say "Hello"  it was so lovely to meet you all 

On the Sunday Griff and I went to the Harry Potter Studio Tour and that was amazing.

We spent almost five hours in there and we looked at everything.
We tried the Butterbeer ice cream and it was delicious

This was our walk down Diagon Alley and all the sets are just as they are used in the films.

 It makes me want to see them all over again and I do have my own boxed set that my daughter bought for me at Christmas

We came home yesterday in very heavy traffic, but what a really good weekend we had.

And that explains my absence from posting for a few days.

But now it is back to normal again until the next time we go away for a little break

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

More "Goodies"

Hi Everybody,

The postman has been busy delivering items here for the last few weeks and here are some more of the things that I have been buying.

I treated my self to the whole collection of Distress Oxides Inks and they are fabulous to work with.

They blend so easy and are very forgiving with sponges.

I also bought the Scrubber Pad and the Stamp Shammy to make sure that I keep all my stamps cleaner than I have in the past.

I got the ATG to add layers to my cards and that is the pink thing on the right. I don't usually get on with tape runners so I will let you know how I do with this one. I end up all tangled up with the tape and I have no idea what it is I do wrong 

The label maker on the left is to label and file all my dies, stamps and magazine freebies neatly so that I can find them when I need them. And the Dymo will make smaller labels to add to my cards and I am sure you have seen that in use several times in the last few vidoes.

So I have to go now as I have a lot of plastic packets that need labelling and filing .... and if things stand still long enough in my craft room .... they get labelled  !!

More tomorrow ...

Hugsxx

Ruby Update - First Birthday ...

Hello Everyone,

I had to stop by today to tell you that I am ONE year old  today... and simply beautiful. 

Well that's what my mum tells me every day and I believe her. I think she has good taste !!

We have had some lovely adventures in the last few months and I am so glad I found my human mum and dad.

 They love me very much ... and spoil me too 

 I went to Dougals birthday on the 4th when he was one and we shared his doggy birthday cake 

Here I am watching him and hoping that he saves me a bit

We had a lovely walk in Lytham on Sunday and I had a little bit of ice cream.

And you know your dog can have some too if they are lactose happy ... which I am.

It was really warm that day and it was a pleasant walk.

But once we got home I got in my basket and had a little sleep. 

A girl needs her beauty sleep you know to look as good as me 

More next time ...

Love from Ruby xx 

Buying Spree ...

Hi Everybody,

I have been visiting Amazon a lot lately and taking a look at some of the crafting goodies on there. And so I decided to treat my self to a few of them and they arrived over the weekend. They have been super quick as some things I only ordered Friday and yesterday, Sunday they where delivered.

So here is a picture of some of the items that I have bought.

I already have the Gansai Tambi Water Colours which I love using and you will have seen them often in my videos. And I have bought now the Starry Colours which are a beautiful collection of golds 

I also ordered the case of finger daubers which are really useful in applying small areas with paint, inks or chalks. There are 40 daubers in a case and they are items I use a lot. 

The tub is Transfer Gel which is used with foils and I am going to be doing some videos with them in the next few weeks.

But the special treats that I thought I deserved are the Teflon Bone Folder and the Crystal Katana pick up tool for pearls and gemstones.

I am sure that they will be seen regularly in my videos and I know that I am going to enjoy working and playing with both in the future. I have more items still to come and I will share them with you once they arrive

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

Little Miss Isabella ...

Hi Everybody,

Now here is someone that you haven't seen for a little while ... the beautiful Isabella doing a little bit of crafting with me over the weekend

Isabella is my Great Grand-daughter and she is now five years old.

She has her own Sapphire machine and some small dies and she knows how to work it by herself

Here she is concentrating real hard mastering the pokey tool. She made a little birthday card for one of her friends at school

We had a lovely time and she is full of questions and she doesn't have time to get bored.

A great day was had by all and we are looking forward to the next time she comes to stay

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

Card Display ...

Hi Everybody,

Every week I give away one or more of my cards and I say that it doesn't matter if you have won before you can still enter again.

 And I am happy to send them to wherever you live at my expense.

So I just had to show you this beautiful frame that Ann Lauzon in Canada has created with three of the cards that she has won over the years that I have been doing this give away.

Christina's Cards

 Doesn't this look beautiful and I am so honoured that she would treasure my creations to this extent. I think it looks wonderful and it is something that I am sure Ann will treasure for a long time. 

Thank you for letting me show everyone what you have done and I hope it gives you great pleasure

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

Ruby Update ...

Hello Everyone,

S'me Ruby here and I am now fully recovered from my operation and back to mischief again

I have discovered that I am now big enough to climb onto the back of the chair and look through the window.

And then I have a lovely time watching the world and barking at everybody who passes my house.

It doesn't matter who is sat in the chair ... I will climb on top of them to see what is going on outside.

I am so pleased to be able to play with my best friend Dougal again

He is a Cockapoo and he is alomost the same age as me.

He has just been to the groomers and had his hair cut and I think he looks really handsome

We play together really well but we get a bit noisy and rough sometimes

Our mums take us in Witch Wood and we love it in there.

It is full of delicious smells and trees and bushes that we can run through.

When it has been raining it gets really muddy and Dougal and I love to run in it and we roll each other over.

So when I get back home I have to have bath and this is me after my bath

I am having a snooze on my mums knee in my lovely warm coat and I snore like a train!!

Lots of people have been asking my mum about this coat and so she has added a link for you to see them ....Ruff and Tumble Dog Coats

More next time ...

Bye for now xx

My day ...

Hi Everybody,

So today I am going to be busy and  later this evening I am going out for a special meal because .... It's my birthday !! And the sun is shining here too. It may not stay that way all day but for now it is there in the sky.

This was a card and gift that was sent to me by one of my readers and I asked her permission to show  it to you all.

The card has lots of beautiful flowers on it and the calendar sits on my desk

I want to say a big Thank You to Ann for making this gift and sending it to me it is much appreciated ... MWah xx

I have lots of videos to do today so must dash now and I am doing some alone as Griff is at work this week. So I hope they turn out all right and they are enjoyed as much as the others

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

Magazine Feature ...

Hi Everybody,

Wow! I am so happy to have been featured in the magazine and so I just had to tell you about it and show you the pages

You may have had your copy as it was on sale at the end of December.  

The magazine was Die Cutting Essentials Special Vol 3  and I hope you liked the cards.

 But maybe you didn't realise that it was me !!

Well here I am and I am really honoured to be in the magazine.

And I have been asked to do more for next months mag too Special Volume 4

I really enjoyed making these cards and the feature was to use an embossing folder in different ways 

There is also a link for you to go to their website and see five more cards that I made for the same project

It was really exciting and this is the first time I have done something like this ... so wish me luck 

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

Let me tell you a story !!!

Hi Everybody,

I have a really lovely family story to tell you and I know you will say "AaaaHhh!!"

So if you have followed me for a while you will know about my handsome Grandson Jamie opening his first restaurant just before Christmas.

I am so happy to say that he is doing really well and building up that reputation for excellent food and good service.

We all worked really hard to refurbish it and none worked harder than Jamies girlfriend Jasmine. She has stood by him through thick and thin.

She has put up with his tantrums when things weren't going right, comforted him in his frustrations at  the many unforeseen problems

Endlessly moved rubbish in her car and scrubbed and cleaned anything she could see.  

She has helped him night and day and she has and laughed with him when it all came together.  She has even waited tables for him once he opened and gives her service  to customers with a smile and cheery word

They arranged to close the restaurant for a few days after New Year to give them both a well earned rest

So as part of his Christmas gift she booked a surprise trip for them both to Paris for three nights  and they went this week

He was very emotional when she told him but quite excited at the same time as neither have been to Paris

Now unknown to her he planned a little surprise of his own ...

On the first night they arrived they went out to dinner to a really lovely restaurant ... and he asked her to marry him.  

He had asked her parents secretly before they went and he bought her the most beautiful engagement ring ... and she said YES!! 

I could not be happier as they are so well suited and she is a real treasure and we all love her too.

So I wish them all the very best in their new future together and this is the card that I have made for them. Thank you for reading my story and I am sure you will wish them all the best too

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx

Card Winner and more shares ...

Hi Everybody,

It's that time of the week again to announce the Friday Freebie winner and the draw has been done good and early-ish this week. The name pulled from the hat is yours ...

Margaret Rogers

and if you could let me have your postal address to 

christina@card-making-magic.com

I can get the card in the post to you straight away.

I hope you will like it and please let me know that you have got it safely.

Interview 

Sometime ago I was asked by a young lady if she could do an interview with me for a blog post. She asked me questions of how I started crafting and for photos to go with the blog post and  I was happy to oblige.

Well that blog post has now gone live and it is in Slovak as well as English. I am adding the link in case you wanted to take a look.

You will need to scroll through the article to read it in  English.  Scrapper SK Scrapbooking  & Cardmaking   and  I would like to say Thank you to Jarka for asking me to be part of this post.

More tomorrow ...

Hugs xx