"The Answer My Friend....."

Well I know you are not going to believe me, but for the first time in forever there is nothing wrong with me! My throat is feeling lovely and cut free, my mum is still in hospital but doing okay (and looking rather good too) and for the first time in a long time my back isn't too bad (and by that, I mean it's not leaving me in crippling pain). So what can I talk about this week if I have no aches and pains? What about crafting?, that would make a nice change eh!
Jo and I have been buying quite a few things from Create and Craft lately. I have resisted their membership for the longest time, always telling Jo that we would never get our money back! I couldn't have been more wrong if I tried. I relented a few months back when they had a Grand Calibut P.O.W. (Pick Of the Week) and as a companion to the Calibur, they sold a mountain of Spellbinders dies that were brand new to the UK and exclusive. Well that was me, hooked. Nesties are my absolute favourite crafting companion, I can't imagine making a card without adding some gorgeous little die or other (if you doubt this statement just look back through my posts!!).
So we took out a membership and literally within a month we had our money back from them. We have bought more Spellbinders than I could ever possibly use (that is unless I make one card an hour for the rest of my life, then I just might fulfil that order!), a massive collection of cardstock, both Kraft and multi-coloured, a CD-ROM (which I mentioned last week), a fantastic collection of Kanban cards and this week we have bought their amazing 4 day deal of British themed cardstock. Jo has even had a go at knitting!, she bought a pack of knobbly bobbly yarn (not wool!) to make a cushion with, but if it turns out to be anything like the blanket she started knitting in 1972 i'm not going to hold my breath that that project will ever see the light of day!!
So would I recommend their membership? Well I think I would have to say yes, but so far it hasn't all be plain sailing. Their customer service has always been on the poor side (a few years back I was called a liar by one of their 'customer service' reps!) but I think the one thing they need to work on the most is the P & P policy. For one single item they charge £2.99 which isn't too bad, but when you consider you could be buying a CD-ROM one day and a sewing machine the next, it doesn't really add up does it? Also, I have noticed that they could easily cut costs by reducing the amount of packaging they use. For our first order with them (a collection of 12 packs of Nesties), they sent the order in a massive box and inside the box there were 3 large Jiffy bags, each bag containing 4 Nesites each. However, the Jiffy bags were so big that putting all 12 in one bag would have still left enough space for a small piece of garden furniture!, so they are not the greenest company in the UK.
I would like to say though that I do enjoy them as a TV station, their presenters are (on the whole) very professional and they make viewing very enjoyable, even if you only have it on in the background there is always something you will want to watch. They have some great deals, especially when they have Flexi-Pay offers which allow you to pay over a few months (with no credit checks!) and they are ALWAYS open, which is a major draw for an on-line shopaholic like me.
On to this weeks card and the theme at I ♥ ProMarkers is Fairies. When I first read that it was coming up, I went into a major tail-spin. Fairies! I'm a boy! I can't do fairies; for one thing, I've never seen a fairy image I like, yet alone one I would want to colour. Well that changed when I found this image on Mo Manning's website (Mo's Digital Pencil), he's called Winter Fairy Halla and I thought he was just perfect, ready for loads of lovely blues and greys. For the background of the card, I used a mask and a sheet of Core'dination cardstock in  blue, then after running it through my Grand Calibur I inked up a few sections of the pattern to make it look like windy swirls. I finished off with some Basic Grey card for the panels, ribbon, pretty jewel flowers, hat pins, doily and a Memory Box corner die, the card came out a lot prettier than I thought it was going to be.I wanted it to be a bit more 'manly' but I guess I just don't know how!
So that's me, happy and crafty, hope you are too,
see you again real soon,
Andy
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