Raising a bit for charity

I am glad to say that I have been able to raise £100 for the Blue Cross charity by selling my birthday and Christmas cards to friends at work

One of the 50 challenges I set myself when I turned 50 in August was to raise some money to build a new re-homing centre for the Blue Cross in Suffolk.

I regularly make cards to raise funds for the Hospice and cancer care and thought it was time to support another local charity. 2 of my cats  Millie and Moxxi came from the Blue Cross as kittens. 

There was an article in the local newspaper about how difficult it was to find homes for black cats - so we welcomed this pair into our home. Despite them coming from the same litter, they are so different in both size and personality!


Moxxi is a long, skinny cat who is friendly, out-going and a bit of a hunter, whilst Millie is a short, fat furball who never ventures further than the bottom of the garden!

Here's a post about them when they were little kittens.

Swapping ATC's

 Many moons ago I started making ATC's as a way of using up some of the small scraps of paper left over from card making.

Artist Trading Cards (ATC's) have to measure 3.5 x 2.5 inches and they have to be traded not sold. Those are the only 2 rules. Apart from that, anything goes!


They can be made using any theme, style or techniques - and it is quite fun trying out new stamps or stash on them.

 I have now made hundreds of them over the years and swapped them with crafters from all over the world. I've posted up photos of a few old ones to show a few examples.

I now host a monthly theme swap on Docrafts and I am amazed at the variety of different cards that turn up every time. New members are always welcome to join!

I am also part of a small  international ATC swapping group of around a dozen - so I get the chance to make and receive lots of these little treasures!

New Stamps - New Cards!

I can never wait to use any new crafty items, so when I picked up Creative Stamping Magazine, I just had to try out some of their fab 'New Beginnings' stamps!

They have lots of great ideas how to use the stamps in the magazine and I quickly sat down and made these cards - going to use the tall house stamp for a 'New Home' card next!

From the oldest to the newest piece of stash...

As a contrast to my last post about my oldest pieces of stash - here is one of my quickest makes! I bought this copy of a Debbi Moore magazine off eBay.

It arrived in the post about 9.30 am and within 20 minutes I had  flicked through, removed the papers and made this card!

 I really like the seaside themed papers and it seems a contrast to the cold and blustery weather outside.

How old is your stash?

I know we can't help hording  crafting stuff, hoping it will become useful one day!

I came across these die cut flowers lurking at the bottom of a box. They were cut out of scrap paper, when I first bought my Cuttlebug. I remember that this die came free with it. Can't remember exactly when that was, but it was probably 2008 or 2009 - so these bits have been waiting around for a least 6 years - will I every use them up???

What is your oldest piece of crafting stash?