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A few "nice" things have happened to me recently, crafty and photograpy things that put a smile on my face.  The first thing that happened was being asked by Making Memories to design for them for a special they are doing on their blog in December and I will be featured on the 7th December! 

The second thing was strange - I got an email that I actually thought was a joke, from a personal email address asking me about a photo of mine and a Layout.  The photo did not show up on the email and I had to guess which one it was.  So I am very surprised and delighted to tell you that my photo will be published in a Creating Keepsakes Magazine in May 2012 and my Layout will be used on their website.  Not sure how this happened, as they found me, I didn't submit to them!

I have just taken the photo down from my blog and added a lovely new picture in it's place!!!!

On Nov 22, 2011, at 2:56 AM, Michelle La Grue wrote:

DT Challenge card.....

We had a challenge to work from a sketch, and I found this fab sketch on line and set the DT the challenge to work with it.

This card was made at my local monthly Saturday crop - and I had to make it from memory as I forgot to bring the sketch with me! Doh!!!

Again using my PTI stamps and the flower die - I probably should give it a little break as I might wear it out!  Love the colour combo I used here, very uplifting and feels like a happy card to me!

More from Hannah's Fab Kit

It was lovely on Saturday to hear all the kits arriving at crafters homes.  I had a little time on the weekend to do a bit of crafting and I used the left overs of the kit to make these little pieces.

Hold me back as I could just keep playing with my Spellbinders Snowflake Die!  OMG I  just love it and fingers are itching to buy the other version of this die.

This long thin card is perfect to showcase the papers and the snowflakes,  cut them in white then coloured them with a cream paint dabber and covered them with stickles.

I only had 1 tag left!  So I cut 2 apertures with the snowflake die and stamped the sentiment on the end.  The apertures were backed with patterned paper and then a bit of red stickles added.  I had a small amount of ribbon left and then die cut some white fabric (from the new padding from my ironing board!) and added it to the top of the tag with a brad.

Shot of the layered snowflake.  Enjoy your kits girls!

Sweet & Simple

The new Lost & Found II, Blush is probably my favorite collection of the year.  (Might have already said that!).  I only had 1 sheet of the paper below, and typically I made a botch of the card and tried to rescue it and the card below is the rescued version.  

Using my PTI stamp, I layered it up and added some offcuts and made a quick and easy card.  Which is winging it away to the intended as I type.

The second card is using the same set of PTI stamps, but for a sad reason.  The death of my friends father in law.  Paper is from Pink Paislee (I think?) and the flower is PTI, layered flower which is one of my favorites right now.

I have a few Challenge cards to share from the Crafty Bloggers Challenge Blog, and I can share them with you in a few days.

Keep well!  Michelle

In our house - We Believe!!!

My christmas grab box arrived from Hannah the other day and I was immediately in love with the classy colours and papers in the box.  I love how Hannah and Katherine both have such different ways of using the box contents, when I opened the box I immediately wanted to use the tags as a count down for Christmas and at the start, this is what I was going to do.  Then as I was looking and starting to work with the papers I found myself going in a different directly.

Oh NO!..... Yucky photo!! Here are some close up's of the details.....

Here is the garland in place in my living room - where it looks lovely.

There is so much left in the kit that I could make a Layout!  Wow - been a awhile since I made one of them!!!  Hope you like my submission for the DT - Sorry it is a little late, I had a mini crisis with a border punch that delayed my finishing of it.  

2 BIrthday Cards

My mother in law recently celebrated her Birthday.  The day before.  I had just received a set of Nestabilities dies that I bought from Hannah.  The dies were on my list of wants, and was delighted to get them as when you want something, you always get ideas of what to do with the item when you get it.

The papers are mainly Crate Paper, Portrait collection, with a rogue sheet of Girls Paperie (dotty!) added in to make it pop!  The sentiment and journal tag are both stamped.  The whole card has been stitched over in black (labour of love!).

The next card was a quick and simple card for my boss who also celebrated his Birthday while he was working here in Dublin.  He got to take myself and my DH out for dinner!  So the least I could do is make him a card and buy him a pint!

So photo taken last minute before I ran out the door, but you get the idea, it's not a full red, it's, more muted.  Teresa Collins stamp and not sure who made the ticket.

More to come, just going to add them now to blogger for scheduled posting - so keep coming back!  Have a fab new kit on my desk from Hannah - just waiting for time to play with it!!!!

I am in the Christmas mood!

Since late September I have been working on Christmas project.  Some project for Making Memories (yah me!!) which will be up on their blog on 7th December.  To get inspiration I spent a lot of time looking around Pinterest..... It is just amazing!  My guilty pleasure - and I just do a happy dance inside when I see all the fab projects and photos.  Makes me want to try everything and stop and photograph everything.

Somewhere I saw a little tree - I could not find a tutorial for it, but just sat and played with some paper till I worked it out.  I've added a collage of 9 photos showing what I did - photos are dark but you get the idea.

1. Cut a circle, I used my MS circle cutter.
2. Add some glue to the back of the circle
3. Glue the circle into a half circle.
4. Ink the edges.
5. Manipulate the paper so it's easy to fold (breaking the tension on the paper)
6. With half circle in front of you with straight edge on the right, fold it over itself from left to right.
7. Use a foam dot or glue to hold this in place when your happy, and then pull the top part into place.
8. Add second foam dot to hold top part in place.

9. I love dimension, so you can see that I have this in 3D, but it looks great flat too!

So there ya all go!  Go forth and make trees!!!!

Special Cake for a special Girl!

Tomorrow my beautiful darling daughter Caoimhe will be 15!  I know all mums say that their daughters are beautiful, but I think my Caoimhe is just amazing.  She is a lovely big sister, a real friend and I am proud to call her my daughter.

At 15, money is her "God" at the moment, so all she wants for her present is Money, but she has already gotten me to buy her some Urban Decay makeup, and new jammies and slippers from her little sisters.  She has plans to hit Dundrum Shopping Center with her friend Megan and shop shop shop!  She wants to have a good look in Hollister and might just spend most of her money there.  She wants another new phone, despite her phone being only 6 months old!!!

We are not planning any big parties anymore for her, as she really did nearly everything that could be done in the past.  So she was just having friends over and a sleep over, but I arranged for a cake for her.  Caoimhe is makeup mad!  She loves it - wants it all and has a list as long as her arm of all the items she must have.  In the future I think she might be interested in a career or side line in makeup!  My next door neighbour Karyn Sheridan and her boyfriend Neil Hassett are the most amazing Designer Bakers and they are called What's up Cupcake?  I had a quick chat to Karyn about the cake and this is what she came up with.  We cannot wait to taste the cake but I if it tastes half as good as it looks, it will be demolished in a day!

So if you have any occasions that require cakes, cupcakes or even cake pops, give Karyn or Neil a call and say Michelle sent you or visit them on Facebook!

This is another one of Karyns cakes - Just stunning!!!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Whats-up-Cupcake/152920341425605

Crafty Bloggers DT

In the hopes that I can find some inspiration, I have joined a Crafty Bloggers Design Team.  This group started out on FB and now has about 450 members on Facebook.

There were some glitches and I missed the first challenge, but I've finally gotten my act together and made a card for the second challenge.

Come and have a look at what we are doing.....

The prompt was Purple, Green and Pink.....  I only used scraps from my scrap bag for this card, and the stamp is PTI, along with the flower die.

Not feeling it!

I have to admit that I am not in the crafty zone at the moment.  The craft room is tidy, the stash is sitting there, the mojo has gone on a hike!!  I feel like I have lost my right arm, the body is willing but the mojo is weak!!!

I may have just asked too much of it recently - I got asked by one of the bigger scrapbook manufacturers to work with some of their products and after I had finished the bunting and the star for Handmade Hannah, I then jumped into the papers and embellishment pack from this company.  I was so inspired, really had fun and pushed my creativity to it's limit and was really happy with what I made.  Once it was uploaded and done and dusted, I slumped into this mood and the last few things I made have ho hum and not worth photographing and uploading.

So it's nothing from me today - some stuff on my DH's computer that I need to move to mine, and a few new things that I made might make it to the blog once I have looked at them again.

So I may give it some time, take a few challenges and see what happens.

The two small's at the Pumpkin Festival in Virginia Co Cavan at the weekend.