Punch Art Fun - Look in the Book - page 31

Hey there, how are you today?

I'm looking at page 31 of Punch Art Fun today. Wanna join me?

I always open a copy of the book in front of me to check things out as I'm talking to you about them. It's always a bit of a surprise to look at the pages again, especially for this feature on the blog-o. Makes me look at the punch art differently. Well, sometimes.

Today we're talking about Birthdays - gotta love a good birthday. In fact, birthdays probably started the whole card tradition. Maybe. Maybe not. Whaddya think?

Okay, I just googled "origin of greeting card" and found this. Interesting! They started earlier than I thought (like way earlier) and greeting cards for a wide range of events, and also non-occasion cards, only showed up in the 1980s. Are you serious? That late? Well, there you go.

Back to page 31.

I need to point out the swirl in the photo above. I've been doing the swirl for years and went through a real "put everything on a swirl" period. The life and times of a crafter, ha ha.

Man card - Swirl with frogs.

Lady card - Swirl with flowers.

Christmas card - Swirl with Christmassy things.

Sympathy card - Bought it from the shops - I don't make sympathy cards.

Mother's Day/Father's Day cards - see above.

Birthday cards - Swirl with birthday stuff.

Works!

Try it!

If you find the swirl hard, just do the card without the swirl and line the bits up in a row. Easy. Check out the border at the bottom of the page. See the little dots under each present? Add a few dots like that. Not five under each, probably just five, seven or nine along the bottom of the card. Odd numbers are good.

To do the swirl - practise first on a sheet of paper, practising always helps. When you're ready to commit, hold your pen vertically (not like a biro) and be confident as you swirl. Even though they're usually horizontal on the finished card, I draw my swirls vertically - easier!

Hello, patty cakes.

That's what we called them growing up. They're called cupcakes now.

A cherry or a jelly bean on top wouldn't go astray. No room for a candle :o)

I cut my own bases using the 2" Circle. I'd just use a rectangle now and trim it. And I'd make a template of a good one, so I could cut around it each time. Having to do things from scratch each time is too unpredictable. I've got a bunch of templates of things. I just store them in bags for future use.

The icing's hand cut too. Punched the 2" Circle in pink, drew the wavy bit and cut it out. Once again, template. Punch in a light colour, draw the wavy bit a thousand times until you get it right and cut it out. You'll never have to try to get it right again...

Happy Birthday to you too, girlie!

She has very neat hair and that's a little heart sticking out the top. Adds a bit of colour. A flower'd do the same.

I find on simple things like that, you have to add a little something extra. Tag, girl + something.

Two reasons: extra colour and extra interest. I doesn't have to be much, just something. Like I said, head band, flower, earrings. Done.



And here's a birthday card for ya.

(I didn't have a lot of square punches available back then. Now I do. I am grateful.)

Honestly, if you've got 20 people that you give birthday cards to throughout the year, why not make them the same card? Substitute boy, girl, man and lady and done. It doesn't have to be the card above, you could pick any card and just make 20 of them without changing anything.

You do it for Christmas cards, don't you? Make all the same one? Why not do it for birthday cards too?

Why not?

Psstt! It's allowed...

I guess it depends on why you make cards...

It's completely up to you how you do it.

One last comment: One of my all time favourite punches is the little candy. I use it all the time. For Birthday things, Christmas things and for fish by cutting one end off. A winner.

Another last comment: See those little lines that stick out of the ends of the vertical swirl on the left of the page? Those little ends that just go into infinity and are annoying?? I wish I could erase them out of all your books! They're all the little details that come with putting a book together. Some get noticed before going to print, some don't. It's life!

Sets of cards and Cuttlebug vs Big Shot

This is one of my favourite things to do when I have the time.

That is, make sets of cards.

I mean, I've got all the stuff out, so I might as well make more than one, right? And of course one card leads to another and another.

All these below are made using October Afternoon papers, Rock Candy Stickles on the Martha butterfly, a stamp I've had for yonks, Hero Arts ink (their yellowy chalk ink called, what's it called? Poppy, that's it) and some tiny type alphas. Not sure who makes the ones I used, but I like them because they put enough Hs and Is on the sheet for me. My original plan was to use all different sorts of alphas, but these worked best, and lucky for me I had enough for all the cards.

Oh, and hello, red buttons. I used red buttons. A staple in this crafting kitchen. Like denim, red buttons seem to go with everything.

I just noticed I used a variety of border punches along the bottom too. Some have two strips, some have one.

The one right above is from EK Success. The one above that is too. The one above that is Martha. I like some punches that have patterns in them and some that are just borders. I like punches, what can I say?

I also like decorative scissors. They really do rock when used sparingly. No cutting around the entire photo with deco scissors here. Just subtle use and you're good to go. I use the scallop ones the most - from Fiskars. I really am glad I didn't chuck them all out when they went out of fashion. I know some people did and they've had to re-purchase.

Ever chuck out anything you've then had to replace? I know of a lady who had a Cuttlebug, bought a Big Shot, sold her Cuttlebug, missed her Cuttlebug and bought another one! Now she's probably going to sell her Big Shot.

And on that. I have both the Big Shot and the Cuttlebug. I used the Cuttlebug for about 18 months. I got the Big Shot and used it exclusively for a while. Just recently I used the Cuttlebug again and loovved it. Realised I missed it.

It's cuter.

It's easier to use.

It's got the X-Factor. Remember I said that recently? It does.

That being said, the Sizzix rocks. It really does, but what I think puts me off the Sizzix sometimes is the mucking around with the spacer plate and the tabs and whatever.

And the shimming, oh the shimming when you're using Nestabilities (embossing them). I forget what to do a lot of the time and then when I have to teach someone else (Hi, Mum!), well, I can't remember and we have to figure it out all over again. The same applies with the Nestabilities in the Cuttlebug too, so that's the same between them. And Nestabilities aren't from Sizzix or Provo, so what do we expect, really? You've gotta do a bit of mucking around to make them work in a different company's machine. We're lucky they actually do work if we're truthful about it.

Anyway, stick with Cuttlebug brand dies and embossing folders in the Cuttlebug and it's dead easy.

Stick with the newest Sizzix stuff in the Big Shot and it's easy. Not dead easy, but easy.

Swap stuff between these two and it's easy.

Start adding different brands into either of them and the ole head can start swimming! Particularly if you add a lot of different brands. And particularly if you're embossing.

My point? There's just not as much swimming with the Cuttlebug.

My second point? The Big Shot is a smoother, sturdier machine.

My third point? This is why there's always debate about which is best.

My fourth point? I don't know of anyone who has regretted getting a Cuttlebug.

My fifth point? I think the Multi-purpose platform and all the flaps that come with it have caused some confusion with the Big Shot. I see why they did it that way, but still, confusion. Confusion can = regret.

My sixth point? The Big Shot can cut everything on the market. The Cuttlebug couldn't until recently - bring on their new 6 x 12 extender plates.

My seventh point? Spellbinders have blown Sizzix's "it cuts everything on the market" claim to fame with their new big dies that add onto their current ones. I linked you over to the new machine (Grand Calibur) and the new dies a week or so ago, I think it was. They cut up to 8 1/2 x 11. Very good, but they don't fit in the Cuttlebug or Big Shot, so am I going to buy a new machine? No. Obviously Spellbinders had to manufacture a new machine that would work with their new dies. It doesn't work with all the current dies on the market, so I'm not sure how many people will buy it. What do you think?

My eighth point? Provo was really generous when they included a C plate with their machine. That was purely so their customers could use other thin brands of dies in their machine, ie. Nestabilities and Papertrey Ink. They're the other brands I use and they work perfectly with the A, B and C plates.

My ninth point? Die cutting and embossing rocks, so it's worth figuring out all the sandwiches you need for cutting and embossing all the dies you have.

My tenth point? Don't be like me and write these sandwich formulas on bits of paper that you've put in some hard-to-reach place. Put 'em where you can see them. Put 'em in a little book. Put 'em near the machine. Write them on the machine! Seriously, write 'em down and refer to them often. Now, if you'd only take your own advice, Debra.

My eleventh, and final, point? Get a die cutting machine, just don't ask me which one!

Oh, and after all that yakking on about die-cutting, I totally forgot about the cards!

Well, here they are with, wouldn't you know it? No die-cutting. 

:o)

Well, I'm concerned...

...I've heard that Bazzill bling is being discontinued.

 Does anyone know anything about this? 

If it's true, I'll be sorry to see it go. I love the Sugar Daddy chocolate colour that I use for icing and cupcakes and the like. I'll also miss Diva and Feather Boa - the pinks. Plus the greens and the yellows. 

The thing is too, I use the backs of them as well. They're not blingy, but nice, bright colours - brighter than regular Bazzill card. I like 'em and I'd be very, very sorry to see them go too. 

:o( 

My tea cup

This is my granny.

You've seen her before. I've talked about her a bit.

What I don't think I've talked about is my granny's tea cup that became my tea cup.

Granny used to mind us a lot as kids and we used to have tea together. Sue used to get the same pink cup with roses on it and I got this one. It's gorgeous, I love it. Things become very precious because we all know it's the memory attached to them that we love too.

It's a trio - I have the little plate too. Granny used to make scones with sultanas in them all the time. I could really go a scone now. She didn't do the jam and cream thing as much, just the butter and jam thing. What I remember is her rings clinking against the mixing bowl as she rubbed the butter into the flour. Such a sweet sound.

She used one of those pink mixing bowls from the 50s or 60s, or even the 40s. I wouldn't know, but you probably know the type I'm talking about. 

The tea cup.

I love this tea cup.

I don't drink out of it much, but I have. I remember wiping it up after it got washed recently and I nearly dropped it. It's stayed on the shelf ever since.

Here are Granny's sugar bowl and creamer. She used the sugar bowl every day, not sure about the creamer. Just easier to pour out of the bottle. I've showed you these before too. Mum told me what they're made of, but I've forgotten.

It doesn't matter. They're so Granny though, I love them. Kinda match her glasses. Scroll up. See? :o)

What I haven't showed you is my sugar and creamer.

Here it is.

Oooh, I looove it.  

I bought it because I liked (loooved) it. My sister told me it was very me. I know what very "everyone else" is a lot of the time, but sometimes I don't know what "very me" is. I just know what I like and I buy it.

It's quirky. It's cute. It's different. It's vintage-y. It's got a red top. It came with a black top too, but the red was a no brainer for me. In fact, if it only had a black top, I wouldn't love it so much. I may have even left it on the shelf. Who am I kidding, I wouldn't have done that, but I wouldn't love it as much as I do if it had a black top. 

Oh, it's definitely me. I've got a red top too! Funny.

Sorry, in all my yakking I forgot to say that it's a two-parter, but you could probably tell that by the photo. You put your milk in the top bit and your sugar in the bottom. And I love that the leftover milk can go straight back in the fridge - no pouring it back into the milk bottle.

And you know what? I reckon my granny would love it. I know she would. We'd have a nice cup of tea together using her china cups and my sugar bowl/creamer. A nice blend of the old and the new - in more ways than one!

Oh yes, just in case you'd like to know, I bought the creamer in a plant nursery's gift shop. They had some really interesting stuff. My sister bought a big bowl for her outside table - I convinced her to get the red over the white - and I also got some very cool melamine drinking cups in yellow, green, pink and orange. Sue got some too - pink for her, green for Sarah.

So, that's the story of Granny's tea cup and my creamer set.

Thanks for stopping by today, have a great day :o)

I make stuff

Sewers sew and whip makers whip.

I make stuff.

I  know you do too.

You've gotta admire those musicians who just keep making music for themselves, but at some point when you're an artist, you just want to share your work. I can understand that frustration. You know how what you do makes you feel and you want others to feel that too. 

Punch art, for me, has been a life saver. Sounds a little dramatic, but I know it's brought a lot of happiness to me. It just has. That sounds dramatic too. But the arts - the dancing, the singing, the drama, the crafty stuff we do, the artsy stuff painters do, the music - all that stuff, it's an expression of who you are, what you like, what you don't, what you love and what you hate really. It shows your style, your passions, your heartbeat. 

Music = notes and they get played. But music is also singing really loud in the car, or in your kitchen when making dinner :o) It's happiness, it's a message, it's who you were with when you were singing really loud in the car or kitchen. It's the funny look on Andrew's face when he walks into the kitchen and then turns the music down. It's the way he feels when I sing along to the songs in the car. He doesn't sing, but he loves it when I do. He enjoys the music, but he doesn't make it. I sing along to it, but I don't make it either. Actually I kinda do because I make up my own harmonies...

(Source: GCD Studios Homespun Chic chipboard shapes)

What I do do is make stuff.

I make cards, photo albums, flower things in vases, envelopes, bags, boxes, canvases, mini books, other flower things in vases, Christmas decorations, bunting, scarves and cushions. I don't make all of those things all the time, but I make stuff and I like it.

My heart though, sits here.

It sits with the little bears and those colourful shapes. It sits with that bear falling into the ocean. It sits with the cream background and all the colours on top.

I can't explain why punch art makes my heart happy like nothing else does. It's funny, I love patterned paper (hello, October Afternoon) and making cards using all the gorgeous bits. I love die cutting and making stuff with those. I love Cuttlebug embossing folders. Like, looove. I was cranking something through the machine earlier in the week and thought, "What's so good about this really? What is so appealing about cranking something through this darn machine?" I have no answer, it just is. And that's the answer, it just is. It's good and it doesn't need explaining. I think I try to work things out too much. 

We all know things we come across in life that make our heart smile. People things, place things, music things, arty things, craft things, doggie things - any things. They're different things for different people, but they're heart smiles.

There was a boy named Mattie on Oprah years ago who faced a lot of life challenges. He and his mother had the same degenerative disease, as did his siblings. I think they'd lost some of the other children when he was on the show (he was on there a few times). He was such an amazing little boy and so wise. He used to talk about heart songs. The song of your heart. The thing(s) in life that make your heart sing. He wrote heart songs too, I believe. I'm not sure, I don't want to get the facts wrong, but I just remember listening to him and the wise words he had to say. He blessed Oprah, and the rest of us too.

What things in your life make your heart sing or smile? They make you feel happy, fulfilled, content and satisfied. They make you feel like you.

For me, there's a lot, I won't list them all here, but they're the special things like God, Andrew, family, Cody and time with all of them, as well as watching good BBC drama!

One of my heart smiles is punch art. I can't explain why, it just is. It's me. 

Heart songs and heart smiles. They're nice thoughts, aren't they?

Bless you today, ladies. Have a wonderful day. 

:o) 

Punch Art Fun 1 - Look in the Book - page 30

Hey there and hello to you today!

Been quite a bit of rain around the traps this week...I love the rain. Love it, when I'm not in it, of course. Also love it when Cody's in the pond swimming and I'm standing under the umbrella with Andrew. Love it then too.

Today I wanted to talk to you about page 30 of Punch Art Fun 1. Page 29 was babies and this page is kids and well, bigger kids. They could be adults too, I suppose.

Here are some kids.

First thing I need to say about this girlie - I think her fringe is too short. And her smile is too big. Sorry to be critical of you, girlie (let's call her Sally), but your hair is too short. Just another couple of mms and you'd be fine.

Your friend, on the other hand, isn't doing too bad although he could stand to lose a couple of kilos...maybe he'd get his neck back.

I don't worry about being cricital of the fellas. They all think they're studs.

Cute.

Echidna hair, gotta love it.

Art = liberties afterall.

See the black hair just in the bottom there?

It's a Christmas tree! Liberties all over the place!

I've always loved the fleur-de-lis for hair. Cute piggy tails there.



And leaves, leaves for hair can't be beat. One of my favourites, esp for just one ponytail. Two take up a lot of room :o) 

Other points about page 30:

~ The butterfly with the blue wings (not in any of the photos above) is missing his lines across his body. Noticed that after the whole book was done and dusted. Noticed a lot of things after it was done and dusted. I tried!

~ The little bee in the corner is a cutie. Love her.

~ The oval shape for the eyes can be hard to find now. Fiskars still has a hand held one as far as I know - you might find it in Spotlight. The other option nowadays is that there are so many border punches out there now that surely one of them has oval bits in it somewhere. They have to be the right size ovals, but still, it's a possibility.

~ The floating daisies are a design no no, but they work for me. Yes, even all these years later, they work for me. I wouldn't change them because the page is what it is and it was what we did at the time. It's pretty funny. It makes me smile.

Okay, that's page 30. Next time for LitB, it's birthdays. And then clowns. I love clowns.

Bye for now :o)

Oh, hang on, forgot something. Wanted to tell you that the new Craft Concepts embossing folders are in at Photo Continental. You can see them here - and only $7.50 too. Cheap. One thing that's cool? They're labelled with their name. The teacher in me loves that.

Really bye for now.

Crochet and Sizzix, but not together!

Well, I suppose you could use Sizzix and crochet together somehow, but I'm not. Betcha someone has though! 

Firstly, the crochet.

I know it's cro-shay, but I still read it as cro-chet. Maybe I should call it croshay from now on.

I'm still making this cushion (from the June Better Homes and Gardens).

It's still pretty full on, hey?

Here's my version so far.

It's looking a little sparse, hey?

And see the ones off the cushion over on the right? They're re-dos. Didn't add enough extra chain stitches in the middle and they turned out like Barbie beanies instead of flat flowers! I obviously noticed they were curling at the time and kept going because I thought I could stitch them flat with just a little curled edge, but decided I didn't like the idea.

Remember I'm making this whole thing up from the original picture I saw on the net. I've got the issue now, but it's still not helpful to me because I really can't read the patterns. Don't know if I can actually, haven't tried. I just asked Mum about one of them and she helped me sort it out. They still don't look like the ones in the mag though, but it doesn't really matter. 

After putting all the flowers out like this, it was fairly obvious I needed to do more and more big ones too. I've done a stack and the cushion's looking pretty full now. Two more to finish and I'm ready to stitch. Not looking forward to that, so I'm putting it off. 

Now, onto Sizzix. I got onto their site recently to check on an image and saw their Coming Soon section. Had to look, of course. Was interested to find they have some new embossing folders coming out in conjunction with Basic Grey.

Hmmm, I'm noticing a lot of cross licensing now. Sizzix and Basic Grey. Sizzix and Tim Holtz (of course, what a splash). Teresa Collins and that Stampmaker machine - not sure what it's called. Core-dinations and Jenni Bowlin. Core-dinations and Cosmo Cricket. Stampin Up and Sizzix. Companies joining together with their products and endorsements. That's my definition of cross licensing anyway!

Wanna see the new folders coming?

Check here for the first few.

And here for the second lot (they're on two pages).

My favourites are Christmas/Thin Ice (esp the Christmas one, and it's horizontal!), Peppermint Twists/Scallops and I really like Powdered Sugar/Snow Globe. Nice. Which ones do you like? Oh, I like Tim's Christmas Countdown one (with all the numbers) and the one that comes with it. Can't remember what it is, but I know I like it.

I've linked you over to pages four and five of five pages of new stuff. Check it all out, it's worth a look. Loving the ornaments - I hope I like the shape. Can't really get a good idea of what they really look like by the images sometimes.

A final note on Sizzix embossing folders. I've found that sometimes they crack the cardboard when they emboss. It's almost like the design is too deep.

To combat it - I emboss on no tabs (on Big Shot) and use shim instead of the top plate. Sandwich is white spacer plate, clear plate, embossing folder with card, chipboard and/or layers of cardstock so that it'll emboss, but not crack the card.

If using the Cuttlebug, it's the same. A plate, B plate, embossing folder with card and then chipboard/cardstock to make up the thickness.

Actually, what I might do is make up my own embossing plate out of chipboard. Work out what combination of chipboard/cardstock I need, stick it together, cut it to the size of a plate and call it my E plate! Would be good to do the same for the Big Shot. Just like the buttons, it's annoying when things don't work properly. Takes the fun outta crafting.

What do you think? Does anyone else out there notice that they (the Sizzix folders) crack their card sometimes? The Cuttlebug ones don't.

Okay, that's enough from me today. Over to you now. Start making your wish list of embossing folders and dies! I save them to Favourites under Things I Want to Buy. Bad, I know, but I like to keep track and I feel like I've "bought" them if I put them under there. I actually forget about the list sometimes and it's interesting to come back and see what's in there. Sometimes I still want things like the Marvy button punch and sometimes I wonder what I was thinking at the time and sometimes I delete things because how many embossing folders can you have really?!

:o)

Button storage

Well, I had to do it. I had to change my button storage from this...

I like storing buttons in bottles because they look nice on the shelf. But I had to change them because of the frustration of getting at the things!

I use red, pink and yellow buttons the most, so I just changed those. The others have stayed in their bottles because changing them wasn't necessary because I don't use them as much, you know?

Here's my desk - a lot happening here, including cup-o-soup lunch.

I was kitting (making up the class kits) at the time...it's always an organised mess then.

And here's the temporary container I chucked all the red buttons into out of the aforementioned frustration. It wasn't "throw things on the floor" frustration, just a bit of "I'm over this" annoyance.

Things I've discovered about buttons:

• It's important for me to see them, thus the temporary container. It got changed to a see-through one later.
• Rifling is important. I need to rifle through the buttons to find the one I want.
• Tipping the buttons into a lid from the bottle can help with rifling.
• What's annoying is getting the buttons back into the jar after the rifling process.
• And what's even more annoying is picking them up off the floor when they miss the bottle.
• Really, it's not that annoying if you do it once. It gets annoying when you do it all the time. And I was doing it all the time.
• So, new container needed. One with a large opening for rifling and non-tipping out purposes.
• I chose the one above as a temporary measure and then rifled through my Tupperware drawers in the kitchen for the other containers. I seem to rifle a lot.
• I found a couple and had to buy one extra, I think.

My button storage now looks like this.

It's:

• Not as fun to look at.
• Not annoying to get buttons anymore.

Sometimes you just have to choose function over form.

Oh yes, and see those little containers to the left of the new plastic ones? They're plastic too. They're Doodlebug storage containers that I got from Photo Continental a while ago. They were only a few dollars each and they are good for rifling - no more tipping them out there either.  

Gosh, it's amazing how having something stored to suit your needs makes crafting just so much more enjoyable.

Half the time though, I know something's annoying me, but I don't know how to fix it (or want to fix it because I didn't want plastic button containers!). When that happens I just wait, the answer always comes. This one did. I was ready for the plastic. Like I said, function over form.

:o)

Another use for those punches...

Now I know this sounds really dumb, but I use these punches as doorstops in my room.

It's starting to get hotter now and I've noticed the afternoon breezes are picking up through my north-east facing door - a tell-tale sign that summer's coming. This means the start of my office doors getting blown closed all the time. They don't have door catchers on them because of the angle they are to the walls behind.   

Cue big punches that are hard to store anyway and problem solvered. Yes, solvered, it's from an ad over here. An old one. It was about paint - can't really remember it too much.

Anyway, punches used as door stops. They work too and I can easily kick 'em out of the way when I need to get to the ribbon and other stuff behind them (which I seem to do quite a lot). Can't do that with a door chock, now can you?

:o)



Sew Sweet

Hey there,

Just wanted to share the last of the cards I made using Cosmo Cricket's Material Girl collection.

Again, it's a big A5 card with a matching envelope.

I know, these big cards cost more to post - I don't know why I do it to myself sometimes. I guess it's about the making and not the posting and hoping that maybe the occasion of "card giving" will be a giving one, not a posting one. Plus, who wants to make normal-sized cards all the time? I just kinda make what I want to make at the time pretty much...you?

:o)

Punch Art Fun 1 - Look in the Book - page 29

Hello, how are you today?

I'm looking at page 29 in Punch Art Fun for our Look in the Book today. It's actually part of the Funny Faces section and it's all about babies.

You can make babies a couple of ways. The first is easy, but it involves a bit of trimming.

All these babies are made using a teddy bear punch with the ears trimmed off. It's hard the first time, but after that you get good at it!

The trick is to round as you're cutting, so you end up with a round head. If you just snip the ears off, you'll get flat heads!

To make the jumpsuits, punch the teddy bear in the colour you want and snip the head off using a circle punch to make the rounded neckline.

Pretty cute. And remember to add a curl!

These babies are made using circle and heart punches. The circles are self-explanatory - head, body and half for the nappy as well as two tiny ones for the dummy.

The hearts are cut in half for the legs and arms. I also used two tiny ones for the bow on the girl.

Hearts and circles, what would we do without them?

What I love about these babies is that you can make them sitting down, standing up or even dancing! I've made quite a few on page 29 - can you see them there? I love the waving babies too.

Now this card isn't from page 29, it's actually from a little book I made. The book's called 10 Reasons Why I Love Punch Art and one of those reasons is that people smile when they see it. And they do. It's nice.

I wanted to show you this one today because it has a baby in it, but also because it's got other bits and pieces that go with babies.

Page 29 also has a couple of simple scrapbook pages on it too. They feature Jack, my nephew, who's eight now. He's a funny kid and has great facial expressions. He's really into reading right now and read stacks of books in one week. And as he was proud to tell us, "they were all chapter books". Nice one, mate.

Well, ladies, have a wonderful day, won't you?