A new hobby

I'm beginning to think I'll never have a full night in bed again.  I don't worry about it anymore, I just get up and come downstairs, no point in lying there if I can't sleep, my mind just goes into overdrive if I do.  Better to come down, put the laptop on and read the papers and a few blogs.  Welcome to a new reader, Christina - I hope you managed to ease your pain and get some more sleep.

I need a new hobby, something that will distract me and keep both my hands and mind occupied.  I just can't get motivated with crochet at the moment, for whatever reason it just doesn't appeal.  After thinking about it for a few days, prompted by having to buy a card for someone and thinking how expensive a decent card is, I've decided to have a go at cardmaking.  I'm late to the party with this, everyone else seems to make their own.  So yesterday afternoon we went to The Range, which has a vast supply of art and craft materials.  I was hoping for a basic cardmaking starter kit, but there didn't seem to be one - kits for everything else though!  There were masses and masses of bits to buy - for cardmaking and scrapbooking, whatever that is, I was a bit bemused by it all.  I settled on a pack of 50 blank cards and envelopes - very nice ones, cream linen finish - they were on a reduced price shelf with a sticker at £4.49, but at the till they came out as 44p!  What a fantastic bargain.  I also got a pack of different colours and designs of backing paper, and a pack of coloured card, my idea being to cut out shapes from the coloured card and stick them onto one of the backing papers, on the front of the cards.  Three packs of stickers (greetings, numbers and letters), plus some glue and a pair of sharp scissors also picked up, and I thought that would do for the time being.  The lot came to just over £14, enough stuff to make 50 cards - blimey!

To be honest, there was just so much 'stuff' there, I found it very confusing and almost impossible to work out what I wanted.  You could certainly spend a ton of money though, if you felt like it.  It's my sister's 35th wedding anniversary this year and I'd like to make a special card for them, I have the glimmer of an idea for it.

If any of you experienced cardmakers think there's anything else essential I should have, or any good ideas for how to go about beginning cardmaking, I'd be pleased to hear them.

We're going to our first car boot sale of the season this morning, the weather is forecast to be decent and we're going to a large one that we know is always there, it's been going for years.  Will have to dose myself up with tablets before we go, my back and hip are still killing me and walking in a lumpy field won't help.  Although looking round at everything will at least take my mind off the pain for a while.