About Me

Me, trying to do my best selfie-pout!

Anyway.. I suspect this page will always be under construction... like me! Always.

This is a long ramble, so if you intend to read all of it, I recommend a cup of hot beverage and a comfy chair.

Firstly, I hope you will understand and forgive me, but in common with lots of bloggers, when I first started this lark, and for several years, I got deeply involved in blog-hopping and commenting, sharing 'blog awards' and blog candy, joining challenges and Design Teams and you name it, and it was all just a tad overwhelming. Having taken a break for five years, I am coming back, but I'm not going to be a very social blogger. I want to spend the time I have crafting, instead. I'm sorry if that seems selfish, but I've reached an age where I'm wearing red hats with purple gloves that don't go, and I don't care, frankly. (Google the 'Warning' poem by Jenny Jones... excellent!)

Secondly, I hope you will understand and forgive me, but I have learned to be careful about what personal information I share online, and I usually only buddy up on Facebook with people I know personally, or have established a good rapport with over time.

CREATIVE CREDENTIALS

I acquired an Art 'O' level at school, and have always doodled, drawn and sketched, albeit not very well, and I write lots. Usually inane comments on FB groups, but I enjoy it.

Papercraft entered my life when I got breast cancer, and knew I would be laid up having chemo and other treatments for a few months, so I finally surrendered to the call of Sky TV, and discovered QVC, which - at that time - had Dawn Bibby, Rosemary Merry, Anna Griffin and a young Leonie Pujols was being gradually introduced. I was enthralled! That was the beginning of my crafting journey, around December 2001.

Not long after finishing treatment almost a year later, I was made redundant. Yes, I know.

"Flippin' heck!" I thought.

Not one to stay down for long, though, I started scheming excitedly to spend my redundancy wad on starting a business, selling my crafty wares. This was early 2003, and after much prep and planning, I launched in May of that year.

My timing was very poor, though. This was shortly after Create & Craft was launched, telling people 24 hours a day that they should be selling their cards. And people did. In their droves, at silly prices and at every retail outlet you could imagine, plus doctors' and dentists' surgeries, and hospitals and garages, and.... yes, it goes on.. which completely undermined the market and devalued our product. I could make enough to support a hobby, but not enough to pay my mortgage.

"Darn!" I thought.

So I found a job.

A couple of years later, I was made redundant again, and had another crack at it. I developed a CD-Rom with card 'recipes' on it... 100 designs with photos, tools and materials required, and step-by-step instructions written for beginners. The main focus of the business this time was wedding stationery, but I had a greetings cards CD as well. I also made bespoke stationery for those that wanted it.

For about a year, I sold hundreds of CDs, but inevitably, it tailed off and I was back to selling cards, but - again - as a single woman with a household to maintain single-handedly, not enough turnover to pay the bills.

That was my last attempt to make a living at it. Anyway, making a serious business out of crafting robbed me of the joy of it.

Then in 2008, the cancer came back. On the other side, this time, and my mother had also had it in between times, so there was no messing about. Off they came.

"Jeepers!" I muttered.

But around the same time, I discovered blogging and working on challenges, and DTs galore.

Having moved on from that, I am once again a happy crafter, and looking forward to sharing more cards with you as time goes by, and checking in on you now and again to learn from you.

I now have Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia, a slow-growing, incurable form of blood cancer.

"Oh, for goodness' sake!" I said.