My New Look Website!!

At last - I have finished updating and revamping my website!! Any of you that have been with me since the beginning, will remember that the reason I set up the blog was for me to be able to document my trials and tribulations when setting up the website. Somewhere along the line, the blog took a different direction (one which I am very happy with I have to say), while the website faded away into the background.

I lost interest in it last year with the whole redundancy thing, and it never really did very well. To be honest, it didn't do well AT ALL. I realise now that it needs something else to make it somewhere people will want to visit . I'm not going to abandon the card selling - I can't stop making cards, and I need somewhere to sell them BUT I need to try something else. I haven't in the past, sold my other non-card items through the site - things like boxes, bags and the plethora of other things I now make and sell when I manage to get to craft fairs and the like, with my stall. So that will be my next job.

I'm also looking into a few other ideas - some of which could be a joint enterprise with my husband - others which are still a bit 'pie in the sky'. But you never know - some of them may just work!!

However, in the meantime, I felt that the site needed a much more interesting look. It was very white and uninspiring - and probably reflected how I felt at the time, as much as the amount I knew about developing a website. Alongside the new look, I have added a Clearance section, and another called "As seen on my blog", where selected cards featured in my blog will be available for sale. These currently have no message inside, so the purchaser will have the opportunity to choose what they would like to say!!

It's been quite a frustrating job to do the revamp - as when I altered one thing, it had a knock on effect on something else. At one point last week, I thought I'd lost the whole thing - and believe me there were tears and tantrums. I have to say, however, that once I got the hang of the live chat/help facility, which meant I could get advice and help on the problems within minutes, I was away. I feel sorry for the poor guys on the other end as I feel I was probably asking some quite stupid and obvious things!!

So, please feel free to check out the new-look site (click here to be re-directed there now) - and leave a message either there on the Guest Book, or here on the blog, letting me know what you think!! And as and when I add new things on, I'll let you know.

Speak soon!!

Cxxx

His Valentine Card!!

So, I did relent and make a Valentine Card for my other half. And here it is. I'm quite proud of it - not cutesy or even a predictable Valentine type card. I based it on a layout I saw in a Docrafts magazine a couple of years ago - one of those images I cut out and stuck in one of my many ideas books.

For any crafty types reading the blog, it's an 8x8 base card, covered in a sheet of paper from Papermania's V&A Quilts 8x8 pack. It's been distressed around the edges by sanding, and edged with Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink.

The hearts are cut from Bazzil cardstock (not sure of the colour names - they were off cuts in my odds & sods box) using my Craft Robo, and the letters are also Bazzil cardstock cut using XCut Die-Licious Alphabet Dies (Smoothie) and my trusty Cuttlebug.

The bottom mat is from DCWV's Luxury Cardstock Stack, and the other is Bazzil card. Ribbon from my stash, along with a flourish stamp and sequins finished it off nicely.

Have a few more recently made cards to post - will do so one at a time so as not to bore you non-crafting friends who I know read my blog out of a sense of duty and friendship!! God bless you all!!!

Things have been a bit quiet since Christmas, I have tonnes of cards waiting to be made - loads of new stash that I think people will love when I've had a chance to work my crafty (although hopefully not too inky) fingers on, and transformed into cards.

Problem is (and believe me this is a problem in the most good and positive sense of the word), I keep getting commissions to make. Shouldn't complain, as I do love making special cards. But all my good intentions of having time to play and create seem to just pass by. And now with Spring just around the corner, my garden is screaming for some attention.

My lovely husband is in the process of putting up a greenhouse for me, and over the winter he dug up a (small)section of the lawn to extend my veggie patch. So, am torn between planning the months ahead for my garden, and making cards and playing with messy, inky stuff.

Plus, I've just remembered I've got tags to make for a swap that need doing this week. Oh dear - my work is never done!!

So, better sign off here, and make a plan of what to do when. (You may notice that I am a bit of a planner - rather compulsive one I suppose).

Bye for now
Cxxxx