The germ of an idea

I had a thought. Just one little one, honest. I have discovered that I enjoy making cards. I never used to. I could never get them to look anything other than thrown together by a reluctant card-maker, which is exactly what they were.

Sitting down with Little Miss to "Do some crafting, Grandma" meant that I had to slow down so that I could show her how to stamp and how to use puffer paint and how to cut out carefully. The result was that my cards looked good. I made nearly 400 cards!

I gave loads to TENOVUS, the Welsh cancer charity and some to each of my children so they had some unique cards to send to special people and as I was cutting the backs off the cards we received this year I had the thought.

I would like to make the cards I send out this year to have a photograph that I took on them. I have a really good picture of Blue Cat under the Christmas tree and I have a snapfish account. I have sufficient good card that will cut to make A6 cards all I need are envelopes. You wouldn't believe how long it took to find a good envelope at a reasonable price. I have now found a website that sells envelopes, all colours and sizes so I will be ordering some soon. I have ordered the photos from snapfish, that way I don't have to waste sheets of photographic paper when the ink cartridge fails or blocks or something that turns every picture blue or magenta or strangely psychadelic just because the printer hates me.

I also cannot stand the noise it makes when it is printing. It sounds like a little voice from inside it is saying "help me, help me, help me" as the cartridge thingy goes back and forth. I used to ignore it until one day I heard it talk. I pointed it out to Mr M and he says he can't use it without listening now. It's a really sad reason to change your printer isn't it? Imagine asking in PCworld if I can listen to the printer before I buy because I don't want it to talk to me, now that would be worth a try...

I have a new Camera!

I have been given a camera, not new but new to me. A very dear friend came to stay for New Year. We haven't seen him for a long time because his now ex-wife didn't like me much. Well, I am the mother of his former live-in girl friend so I can understand her reluctance to include me in their life. Anyway, he was our friend through the dhop I used to have before he was my daughter's boyfriend and now he is in contact again. He is a photographer, amongst other things, and when he realised that I take pictures and scrapbook he said he had a camera and he would bring it when he visited.
I didn't expect him to remember but he did. He brought it whith him. An Olympus SP 55OUZ. It is fabulous. I have spent quite a long time playing with it. We went out on Friday and walked about the city centre pointing our cameras at things and trying different settings. On Saturday I took a few from my favourite spot outside my back door and today I took it with me to the dedication of my cousin's new baby. I was able to take pictures using the available light setting so there was no flash to disturb anyone and with the zoom lens I could sit happily at the back of the congregation.
I will post some of the pictures soon but at the moment I am still learning how to do things. He has promised to teach me about photoshop too. I always learn better when someone shows me rather than reading things from a book.