Stash & Craft Room Catch Up

I've been acquiring some new goodies, some I've bought, some were subscription gifts and I've even won a prize from taking part in a Facebook competition run by Making Cards magazine more about that below, but I thought I'd have a quick catch up on my craft area. Si has put me another light in, its a temporary fix, he's recycled a lamp and attached it to the ceiling, it plugs in to the mains and I have a smart bulb in it so I can turn it off and on with my voice and alter the brightness which is brilliant.

I still have to label all the Oxide Inks I have in the rack that my niece and nephews got me for Christmas, I better get my skates on as I expect the next batch of Oxide colours will be announced very soon. My stash is continuing to expand, but my aquisitions are a lot less frequent than they were before Miserly March. I'm spending less than I did before and trying my hardest to use what I have in before I buy something new, don't get me wrong, there are still LOTS of things that I want, but I'm learning that their is a difference between want and need.

Over the past few months I've added the Tonic Nuvo Diamond Inks to my ink collection and recently collected all the Tonic Alcohol Pens, I've yet to properly play with both items to know how much I like them, and whether I think they are better than promarkers or not. I have to learn to just try 1 or 2 of a set and work with them before I buy the whole set, these save money to buy the whole set deals look worthwhile initially but if you don't use the whole set because you can't get on with it, its wasted money! The only other major purchase I've made is a Tim Holtz Glass Media Mat which is due at the end of June, fingers crossed.

Until this weekend, there hasn't been much crafting time recently, we got a new RPG game that both of us are loving playing, its another of those games where I get to run round collecting herbs and making potions and remedies and Si can do all the fighting and hunter gatherer stuff that he likes to do, its kept us both sane recently. Being ill, and more problems with the neighbour means we've now had to convert part of my craft room into a TV area to escape the noise from the neighbours music, when its bad we just can't sit in the front room the music vibrates through the sofa and drowns out the TV, when its very bad we can't even sit in our makeshift TV room (my craft room) on the other side of the house with the TV turned up full!

We've tried to resolve the issue, we've talked to her, I've gone round sobbing asking her to please stop, Si has been confrontational, we've got the noise people and council involved, it goes quiet for a while and then it starts again. This has been going on for 10 years now and its having a huge impact on my mental health, if I could afford it I'd move, but we can't so here we have to stay. Most days I spend all day in this little room and at times I sit with headphones on playing my own kind of music to drown out the reggae stuff from next door with its thumping bass or I end up a blubbing wreck. The TV area addition has meant that stuff I usually store on or near the bed has had to be stored on my craft desk and the area in front of it so I haven't been able to get at my desk to play. I'm scheduled to try and sort it out this weekend and move things so that crafting can happen, fingers crossed.

Sorry for the moan above, now back to crafting, it did feel good to be able to get it off my chest though so thanks for reading/listening. 💓
I started collecting Tim Holtz Distress Markers around October last year a couple here and there, until that point I thought I didn't need them, but after watching some techniques on You Tube and on other peoples blogs I decided that indeed I did.

I picked up about 20 pens for around £1.50 each when Craft Barn began their closing down sale last month and found a few more colours on other sites for around £1.75 each. So currently I have 40 of the colours with 21 left to add, I'm buying them a few at a time and should have the whole set by Xmas, the crafty magpie in me wants to go buy the whole collection but I know I can't afford that at the moment so I'll have to get then a few at a time.

Whilst I was ill last month Simon surprised me with some trays that stack together to store my Distress Markers in. Currently I have 7 of them but he's going to 3D print me enough to hold all the pens for when I have them all. He designed the trays and printed them, he's a star and his creation really cheered me up when I was feeling ill. His genius creation makes storing the pens and accessing them very easy and as a bonus they are stored in the correct position so that they don't dry out. With the racks, Zig brush holder, wreath stamper templates and other goodies Si has made for me, my craft working space is slowly getting a bright plastic look, its a bit mis matched colourwise but its certainly easier to store things and it makes me smile knowing that my fella created them for me.

The bundle above arrived recently, its the recent subscription 'gift' for taking out a years subscription to Making Cards Magazine. I was absolutely amazed at this bargain, the years subscription (13 issues) cost me £49.99 the WOW goodies are valued at just under £45 which means I get 13 issues of the magazine delivered to my door for less than £5!!! I've been wanting to try out the WOW embossing pad and pen for a while, the embossing powders I've used for a while and highly recommend. I now have an extra heat gun so if I ever had a craft night with friends I don't have to share lol! That said my 14 year old neice is is coming to stay with us soon and I've promised to show her some card making techniques which I'm looking foreward to so much.

This weekend saw another first, I discovered that there was a card making group occuring locally a few months ago, I finally got the courage to contact the lady to find out more, she replied but I chickened out, when the neighbour 'kicks off' my anxiety kicks up, its never gone away since 2010 but I can usually supress it, when it takes over I won't go out, the smallest thing upsets me, I stress, worry and avoid the world. Anyway, Tracey, the lady that runs the class contacted me to say she was having an open day and would I like to go, idiot me thought I'd missed it already.

Turns out I hadn't so I decided to go along, on Saturday morning my anxiety kicked in big time, I was about to go out and meet people I didn't know. The weird thing is if Simon is with me I'm fine, alone I'm a basket case, Si wasn't going to be there, and I knew I would be alone. I tried an assortment of ways of wiggling out of going, in the car on the way there my stomach was doing flips and my heart was racing. I told Si and he said basically I had my mobile if I wasn't happy he'd come back and get me, having lived in Derby now for almost 16 years and having no friends the rational part of me wants to get out there, so I did it.

I had a really nice time, I made a make and take card and picked up some water based markers for £1 each, there was coffee cake, craft bingo and lots of chat, although this time I didn't really say much because I didn't really know anybody. The 2 hours I was there felt like a lot longer, in a good way, yes I was nervous as hell and my stomach was in knots but the ladies were all so friendly and it helped that I could escape in to some colouring and creating so the focus was outside of me. My colouring isn't that brillaint because I didn't take my close up glasses, so I couldn't see the details, but it came out fine.

I'm looking forward to going to a more classes in the future, but have to admit that I'm a little concerned that the classes are Stampin Up based and my curbing spending head is worried she'll get tempted to spend what she doesn't have, but hopefully it won't be an issue. Well that's all for now, next time I'll share some cards I've been making, I actually got time yesterday to make not 1, not 2 but 3 cards and dabble with some new ideas for using products I have in inspired by my friend Jennifer Kray.