Bank Holiday Fun!

Hope you have all enjoyed your bank holiday? I've been working for most of it as I had to make sure the CD was finalised ready to be sent off for production tomorrow - eeek! Soooo looking forward to getting my pre-production samples at the end of the week!!! My actual CD - not just one I made at home but a properly printed one in a properly printed case - my excitement knows no bounds!!!

Despite the working I still enjoyed myself, the weather didn't look up to much anyway and yesterday was soooo windy - our Sky wasn't working all day - OH was very close to flinging the box out of the window and my Terry Pratchett recording messed up - luckily its repeated today as it looks fabbo and I would have been gutted to miss it.

Fuzzybutt pooch has loved us both being home all the time and has been taking it in turns to snuggle with each of us - she's such a little doll, I love her!

Also, this is my last full week of being in my 20's as next week I turn 30!! Do I have to start acting like a proper grown up then? I certainly hope not! I have flitted between being OK with turning 30 and being depressed about it but I figure 30 isn't that old now and I look a LOT younger, bwahahahaha (no really, I actually do, a bit anyway.....)

Also, just to let you know that Debs has had to change her blog and can now be found here.

Thank you for all those people that have e-mailed me regarding the Design Team positions - you really are a talented bunch and it's going to be a very tough decision! You have until Sunday to get your emails in to me if you haven't yet done it...

Sarah x

Welcome Mummy!

So today I welcome the third member of my design team - my mum!!

so what lovely things can I tell you about her.... she's a mum of 4 (me and my 3 squishies - my poor dad is outnumbered by girlies!) and has always encouraged all of us to be artsy and creative, so I guess I have a lot to thank her for! She cooks lovely cakes and passable other food - she uses the smoke alarm as a timer... she loves animals and has a whole load, me and my dad are actually trying to talk her out of getting some chickens..... She wears purple eyeliner, which is probably why its my favourite colour in the whole world! and she stays up later than anyone I know - want a chat at 4am? she'll be awake and ready to take that call!!! She took the brave step today of starting her very first blog to show off her work - you can follow here. Today is her birthday - so please wish her happy birthday when you visit!!

I'm so looking forward to seeing what she creates with my designs - I know she has lots of ideas already!

So welcome mummy, glad to have you!

Thats all for my design team news now until I find the last few to complete my team (see DT call a few posts below)

Sarah x

Screen Test!

So today I woke up with my tummy in knots because it was my screen test! The weird thing is I wasn't worried about the test itself, I always get nervous about the stuff around that - will the trains run ok, will the ticket machine be working, will I get there in time etc etc, silly really! Anyhow, I made it, in plenty of time and in one piece! Spent a little bit of time in the green room before being called through to my screen test with another guy who also had his. We had Ellis as our presenter and she was so lovely, really put me at ease - they count you down and before you know it, its over again! I know its a cliche but you really do forget the cameras are there!! Before I knew it I was waffling away, it was really quite fun!

Soooooooooo...... the upshot is, I passed! woo! and they were really pleased with it which was nice, so it will definitely be me on there with my CD on the 17th June, hope you will all watch!

Please don't forget my design team call from yesterday (see below) I've already had some fabby e-mails - this is so exciting, some really talented people!

Anyway, I'm off for a well deserved glass of wine now..... and with a big smile on my face :o)

Sarah x

More Design Team News!

Today I would like to introduce Debs!

the second member of my design team and another Promarker fan! Debs lives in Yorkshire and is married to Dan, they have two children, Casey age 10 and Milly age 7 (who also loves Woodland Whimsies!) Apparently Debs makes amazing carrot cake (I will be needing proof of this at some point Debs! LOL) Debs also likes to sing karaoke (which is not as good as the carrot cake apparently!) and cross stitch. Take a look at her blog to check out her lovely work!

Thats it on the DT announcements for a few days now. However I am still looking for a few more peeps to share the load! Please see details below....

I look forward to seeing some of your work - judging by the emails I've had so far, it will be tough to choose!!

Now I have a screen test to prepare for tomorrow, samples to make, demo to prepare and outfit to find - wish me luck!!

Sarah x

My First Design Team Member

I would like to introduce Michelle!

Michelle is the first member of my design team. Michelle lives in Yorkshire and she has a 10 year old daughter. She loves crafting, especially card making and has been crafting for about 2 years. Michelle can do wonderful things with Promarkers! Pop on over to her blog to see some of her wonderful cards. I'm so looking forward to seeing what she does with my designs!!

So welcome to Michelle! More about the design team later in the week..... (thank you to those who have already been in touch)

What a shame I didn't find her in time to help me with samples for Friday LOL, you will be seeing her samples on my first actual show though, such a relief to have some help!

Sarah x

Promarkers!!

Yesterday I was lucky enough to receive this box in the mail.... (excuse blurry pic, think I was shaking with excitement!!)

which I opened to find..... a gorgeous set of Promarkers!! The lovely people at Letraset were kind enough to send me them to demo with my CD on Create & Craft as there are lots of digi-stamps for you to colour in! So expect lots more samples now as I colour in to my hearts content! I immediately cleared a space to make way for my lovely new display....

so pretty *sigh*

Hope you liked the sneak peek yesterday! - I was over the moon with the feedback I received, it's so kind of you to take the time to comment on the blog and email me, thank you!

Anyway, must get on, speaking of samples I have lots to get done for Friday!! I will try and do the intro for my first design team member tomorrow as well as the info if you would like to apply to join my little team.

Sarah x

Sneak No. 2!

As promised, here is sneaky peek number 2 of Woodland Whimsies..........

Once again, would love to hear your thoughts! Thank you to everyone who took the time to comment on my blog, message me on Twitter and Facebook and e-mail me last time - it really does mean so much!

Tomorrow I will be bringing some more news which I'm very very excited about - (I've been a very lucky girl!) and later in the week I will be bringing some design team news - I've now realised, while preparing samples and a demo for my screen test (on Friday peeps, keep it all crossed for me I don't fluff it!) that I really can't do everything by myself, turns out I'm not Superwoman after all - who knew?! LOL

I'm very lucky to have some great friends who have chipped in and helped me with some samples (thank you!) and have also been lucky enough to have found one amazing designer who I will tell you more about later in the week, but I really need to add some more to my little team of helpers (I haven't decided how many yet!) so if you like the CD so far and would like to be part of my team, then email me and I'll send you the details once I have them all together or keep an eye out for my announcement.....

Now I have some files to re-name for the final production of CD's - turns out not everyone gets my strange terms for things - runny babbit anyone? LOL, I also have some after-sun to apply, I spent the day with my friend Karen from Scrapshed and as it turns out we spent waaaay too long sitting in the sun (I was under an umbrella) and now I have sunburn - ouchie!

Sarah x

Craft-tastrophe!!

Today started off perfectly, sun was shining, birds were singing, blah blah blah..... I decided to spend the day in my studio preparing samples for the show when......

......I opened the built in closet and evrything fell out!!!!!!! one of the shelves had come loose and everything was resting against the door - luckily I didn't get anything broken (bones or stash!) OH managed to help me get everything back in a reasonable state and he's going to fix it tomorrow while I'm out - I just can't watch! I go into full "Hyacinth Bucket" mode and start telling him to be careful of everything etc etc... so I'll leave him to get on with it and come back to it all done - it's for the best! LOL

In the end I did manage to make a few samples and finish my bunting for my studio - will post a pic soon! but the chaos around me was REALLY not helping! So I gave it up as a lost cause and decided to come back downstairs to work on my CD's and do some drawing. I think I may have figured how how to do a downloadable freebie which I will post next week - as well as some more exciting news I have to share!

Also, for tomorrow I am preparing another sneak peek - I was sooooo nervous to post the first one but I got such wonderful feedback that I feel better about posting another one! (if you missed it, please see below....)

I hope you are all having lovely crafty relaxing sunny weekends!

Sarah x

Woodland Whimsies Sneak Peek!!

OK, here goes, my first sneaky peek of my Woodland Whimsies CD! I am sooo nervous to post this in case everyone hates it and I get lots of "what were you thinking?!" emails. Would love to hear your comments and feedback!! (you can click on the image to see it bigger)

I'm STILL making samples for the first live show on the 17th - you need more than you think!! Now where are my helpful little elves? LOL

Hope you are all enjoying the sunshine I keep hearing about!

Sarah x

New Layouts

Firstly I would like to thank everybody for their congratulations, their blog comments, messages via facebook and twitter and all the lovely emails I've received. Doing something like this is obviously very very nerve wracking and to feel like there are people rooting for you makes all the difference. Obviously you can't please all of the people all of the time and I fully expect to receive some critiscism and harsh words at some point (Ive seen and heard some awful things said about some fantastic people so know it happens to everyone!) - but having all the lovely messages will make that easier to deal with! In my moments of self doubt I've been re-reading all of them, so thank you!!

Today I spent the whole day in my studio making samples for the Create and Craft shows from my new CD (Woodland Whimsies)- it's so exciting to work with my own line of products!! I just hope everyone else likes them as much as I (obviously!) do. I'm hoping to do a sneaky peek on my blog in the next day or two so keep your eyes peeled for that - I will also be posting some more news (yes, there's more! LOL)

Today I also got the chance to (finally!) break open my Studio Calico kit - its just so lovely I almost couldn't cut them up! But luckily my OH had been up in his mums loft just the day before and bought home some lovely pics of him and his family which gave me the incentive to go ahead! I also done a layout of my little sister from when she was just 2! soooo hard to remember her when she was all cute (and quiet - ha!)

He also found an old craft book - I think from the 60s or 70s while he was up there and his mum said to give it to me - I was THRILLED! - the projects in there are so delightfully retro and the pictures are gorgeous and hilarious at the same time - I will be sharing as I work my way through it!!

Back to the grindstone now - have a screen test next Friday so have a demo and some samples to prepare - think I'm going to need some people to help me before long!!!

Sarah x

BIG NEWS!!

I'm so excited to finally share my news after teasing for soooo long (wasn't intentional, just wanted to make sure everything was 100% before I did!) My first craft CD-ROM, Woodland Whimsies, will be launching on the Create and Craft channel on 17th June at 12 noon - I hope you will tune in! (I could do with the moral support, LOL)

Still can't believe it has actually all come together. There is also a little surprise lined up for my first show.... you know how I like my secrets! LOL and I'll also put a few sneaky peeks and maybe a couple of freebies on here (if I can figure out how!) in the run-up to the show.

So now I have sooooo much to do for my first show, CD's to be finalised, samples to be made, demo's to be designed and prepared etc etc... as well as trying to keep my nerves under control and find something to wear that doesn't make me look like a heffer on TV (it adds 10 pounds you know! which for a midget like me is a LOT!)

Sarah x

Swings and Roundabouts....

First of all I'll get the icky negative stuff out of the way - I'm sure you're all bored of me going on but I shall anyway! I've broken another rib which has left me sleeping propped up in bed like a vampire again, but at least I'm sleeping!

Now the good stuff!! I'm am almost prepared for scary deadline next week, and i'm actually really pleased with how its all turned out, I just have to keep my fingers crossed. Now I'm prepared and have booked my ticket (just today) I'm definitely going (eek!) not that I ever seriously considered backing out but telling myself I could if I wanted to was my way of making the whole thing less scary, now there's no going back! I can't wait until I can share with you all whats been happening (which I will whether it goes well or not, it's only fair as I've kept you in suspense this long!)

I have also had time for some more scrapping this week, I have finally got round to making the layout about our engagement (awwww, aren't we sweet, LOL) and here it is:

We got engaged with just the two of us so there are no actual pics of us, so I used a pic of my ring instead, it still makes me feel all squirmy and excited when I put it on and I often drift off staring at it! (is that sad??) Now we just have to get on with the business of wedding planning, eeeek!

Now I'm off to eat drink and be sleepy!

x

The Girls Paperie

Took some time out from scary deadline today to scrap with some of my gorge new paper from the Girls Paperie line by Margie Romney-Aslett - just done the one layout of my fuzzybutt pooch and I'm in LOVE! its so lovely and I havent even used my favourite ones yet!! cant wait to break open the stamps and embellies.....

National Scrapbooking Day

So today is National Scrapbooking Day, in case you didn't know! but unfortunately I have had no chance to actually scrapbook - how shocking is that! Im on a VERY tight deadline for one of my future projects (more details to come very soon!) and have spent all day doing things for that (and reading the new Martina Cole book - fabby!) I hope you have had more luck than me and have lots of time to scrap.

Yesterday I visited ScrapShed and picked up the new Girls Paperie range - I'm in LOVE already! its sooo lovely and I can't wait to get my hands on it - definitely tomorrow, I'll have to make some time!

I also managed to bag myself a Studio Calico kit in the week (by getting up at stupid o'clock in the morning - seriously, like 4.30am!) but I'm soooo excited to receive it, I'm pressing send / receive constantly waiting for my despatch notice and will be stalking the postman after that until its arrival (it's OK he's used to it now.... LOL) I've never had their kit before but heard so many good things and admired their kits and DT work for AGES - when I grow up I want to be a Studio Calico DT girl!

Right, back to the drawing board now - that deadline is screeching up fast!

x