June's crop class

Thought I would post my next class at the June crop.  I have made a never ending card but instead of a card I have actually made it into a little scrapbook minibook - hope you like it!

first page

second page

third page

fourth page

Papers are by My Minds Eye from the Bloom and Grow collection.  Next crop is 27th June at Cheswick Green Village Hall.

Thanks for looking

Yet another box

A couple of weeks ago I tried out one of these handmade boxes using the bind it all.  I have to say they are extremely easy to make - a lot simpler than a lot of the ones I usually make!

Here is the top:

Flowers are Prima and not handmade for once! although all the leaves are cut using punches.  Key is from a sizzix Alteration die and is loosely fixed on top of the box, gems were in the sale at Hobbycraft and the stamp is, of course, Paperartsy.

Here is the front of the box:

Stamps are Paperartsy and Prima (the wings), the lock from the sizzix alteration die.

And here are the other three sides:

Cant remember what make the clock stamp is on the cut out clock or the one behind it - since I have demounted my stamps from their blocks, and probably also because I have sooooo many stamps, I am starting to forget where some of them come from - I did write most of the makes next to them when putting them into A4 binders but some slipped through the net.....

The birdie is from the Sizzix Alteration birdcage die and I have just noticed that the poor thing hasn't got an eye - better go and remedy that!  Stamp is Paperartsy.

the Time is eternity circle stamp is Non Sequitor (how fab are they!) and the butterflies from a punch. As usual distress inks were involved! Whole thing only took a couple of hours - very impressive I thought!

Thanks for looking :)

Birthday card

Have been busy making this card for my father in law:

Have used frayed burlap, rusty hinge, walnut stain, black soot and spiced marmalade distress inks along with dried marigold and tea dye distress embossing powders, a bronze embossing powder and stamps from Prima and Paperartsy.  The bird, key and lock have been cut out using the new sizzix alterations dies.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenge:

http://www.movingalongwiththetimes.blogspot.com/ whose sketch I have used

Thanks for looking :)

My birthday bunting

A while ago I threw out all the birthday banners in our house in the hope that it would spur me on to make new ones for everyone, so when it came to my turn I thought I would use the new Fairytale collection stamps to make mine.  Inspired by this fabulous tower bookmark http://atouchofmagnolia.blogspot.com/2010/04/longing-tilda.html  I created this:

Again, like the pirate bunting, I have had to photograph it in small chunks as the whole thing stretches as one image and looks silly but I have to say that it looks rather fabulous hanging up in my lounge!  I have to confess that the whole thing took me ages particularly as I had half done it before I remembered the Paperartsy castle stamps I had so I just had to redo the middle wall sections and incorporate them into the bunting! 

Stamps used are Paperartsy, Prima (one of the butterflies), Elzybells (George and the Dragon), Making Memories (the text on the smaller flags) and Magnolia which are coloured in with Promarkers, lots of distress inks, stickles and glimmer mists have also been used so its actually very sparkly in real life.  Flowers - some are bought but most are made from the Tim Holtz tattered flower die.  Have used some prima pearls, sizzixed swirls and clouds and the letters spelling out my name are Primas flocked alphabet from our Paper {NV} kit.  Also the ivy leaves are cut using a new Docrafts punch that I treated myself to last week.  Its all held together with hemp which I died using pine needles distress ink.

Also for those that know me I hope you have all noticed that there isn't a pirate or mushroom in sight!

Thanks for looking :)

Oooh I won a challenge!

How exciting is that!  There was a three way tie over at http://thepinkelephantchallenge.blogspot.com/ where myself and two others won challenge number 68 (for the card on the post below) - congratulations girls! 

Am just back from a little holiday in Chester so am hoping for a quietish day in to catch up on the 5 or so loads of washing and to also finish my birthday bunting - need to be quick about it though as its my birthday tomorrow!  whoo hooo

Can't grumble

Having a lovely time at the moment - lots going on, lots to make and do and because the weather has been too hot for me I have been staying in the house with our portable air con unit on either crafting or cleaning!  so the house is respectably clean and tidy (kitchen floor is drying as I type!) and I have some projects on the go.

Here is a card I made last week using my fabulous new bird cage die - as soon as I saw a picture of the bird cage mounted this way on a tag on Tims website I knew I just had to have it!

Stamps are Paperartsy (of course) and Prima, flowers are Prima and the orange rose is handmade.  Inks used are spiced marmalade, aged mahogany and I think the butterfly is stamped using bundled sage.  The swirls were stamped with acrylic paint.

I would like to enter this card into the http://thepinkelephantchallenge.blogspot.com/ challenge which this week is to use orange as the main colour on your card.

Also I would like to share a bit more sewing with you all - I made this organiser a few months ago - again this is from a Mandy Shaw kit that I got from http://www.daisychaindesigns.co.uk/ - I know its not quite finished as the fairy faces havent been completed but I still havent got the right pen to use as all the ones I have tested bleed so she looks a bit freaky at the moment but thought I would still share!

front cover

inside fully opened out

inside half opened so that you can see the scissor keeper section

and finally the back cover

This was great fun and surprisingly easy to make albeit a little fiddly in places!  If you look at the daisy chain website my next project is to do the "A Quilter Lives Here" block of the month (although I have already bought the whole quilt to do so I can do it all in one go) - isnt it fabulous!

Thanks for looking - have two hours before aqua fit now so off to do some more on my birthday bunting which is taking forever to make!

Blog candy

Oooh look at this:  http://atechnophobesblog.blogspot.com/  a chance to win some fabulous Hanglar & Stanglar stamps - good luck everyone!

Lots going on!

Apologies for the lack of posting - I have been doing lots of bits and pieces but mainly all sewing related.  Went to the Malvern Quilt Show week so I got inspired to get on with some sewing kits I have been stockpiling - here is my latest:

A lovely twitter bag that I bought from Daisy Chain Designs last year - bag is fully lined with a phone pocket and a zipped pocket.  I did take a picture of the back of the bag which has another little birdie on (the one standing on the right) inside a circle of letters but I have just managed to delete it!  oh well I might get chance to take a new picture another time!

Also here is the rest of Benjamins bunting - I did take a picture of it hanging on the wall but it keeps reformatting on here and looks rubbish so I will just show two of the flags on an individual picture so that you get the idea:

SORRY HAVE HAD TO REMOVE THE PICTURES AS THEY ARE GOING TO BE PUBLISHED - WHOOO HOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!  WILL POST THEM BACK AS SOON AS I CAN

It looks absolutely fabulous on his wall!

I am currently still working on the rocket cross stitch to go in his room too (absolutely nothing to do with pirates or diggers (the theme of his room!) at all but at 5 he is not too fussed!

Had a lovely day today - this morning I taught a class at the village hall making the lovely paper flowers that are so popular at the moment - everybody made two lovely tags each and we all had such fun.  The tags were based on these two: 

Then this afternoon I have spent a couple of hours in DS1's classroom helping them all to paint some hand made pots - which all look absolutely fabulous too, I was extremely pleased to see that my son had made a mushroom one - he knows of my passion for those!!

Thanks for looking :)

Been too busy to blog....

Have been busy making a bunting for my little boys room - here is a picture of the first two "flags"

SORRY HAVE HAD TO REMOVE THE PICTURE AS THEY ARE GOING TO BE PUBLISHED - WHOOO HOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!  WILL POST IT BACK AS SOON AS I CAN

It wasnt quite dry (the bits where I have placed gold treasure) when I took these photos yesterday so I havent hung it on the wall yet so I cant show you the full bunting at the moment (cause my desk isnt big enough to lay it out - trust me to give my child a name with 8 letters!) but I am really pleased with it.  I was going to go with the traditional flag shaped bunting with each flag being a skull and crossbones but then decided on treasure maps instead as I could get more on them!  The whole thing has taken me ages!  its been glimmered, sprayed, inked, coloured in, distressed, stamped and layered repeatedly!  the most fiddly thing was threading the string through the eyelets - by the time I had put sellotape on the end of the string to stop it fraying it was slightly too big to feed through easily - not the best considering I had to unthread it three times as I didnt like the knots or needed to add some!

Little B is pleased with it too which is a relief!  I would also like to enter this into the http://stampinfortheweekend.blogspot.com/ challenge - which is for a card/project for a male.

Here is a card he made for a friends birthday yesterday:

All his own work even the stamping!  bless him.

Thanks for looking - I am now busy making a fairytale birthday bunting for myself!  whoo hoo.

Gable Box

I saw this challenge over at http://www.dutchdare-cardchallenges.blogspot.com/ on 8th April and thought I would have a go at one - I knew I wouldnt have time to get it completed for the challenge itself as we were away and last week I was so busy but I am still mad about making boxes so thought I would do one to put on my little shelf of lovely things, so here is mine that I finished yesterday:

this is the front - using my (still) new Paperartsy stamps - and yes yet again another handmade flower! The blue bird is stamped out on metal and finished with a little bit of bling for the birdies eye;

This is the side - both are similar only this one has the scalloped circle on as I decided it needed a bit more colour other than that I left these quite plain (can always be added to at a later date cant they! - although to be honest I like them as is);

and this is the back - again I kept it plain but the stamps say it all really dont they! 

The box has been inked and perfect pearled to within an inch of its life and then just finished with the simple stamped images, prima flowers, tulle and a little nestability tag which is held on with a fancy pin (another little treat from the NEC) and some hemp (a treat from the local Hobbycraft store!).

Last night I also, finally, coloured in a Robin Hood Edwin image so I am just off to go and do something with him now - I dont usually colour in the images without sorting out my papers first but I figured I would just be doing him in green and brown anyway so I went for it whilst watching another episode of Flash Forward (only 3 more to go now and I will have caught up!) - has anybody any idea what is going on with that??  I am totally lost with it all....

Thanks for looking.

Getting sorted

Have had another mega organisation day today - not only around the house as we have been to the tip with a car load of stuff and cleared out some rubbish but in a lovely crafty way!

Last week I spent the week organising all my magnolia stamps into a new A4 ring binder which meant relaminating the older stamp sheets so that it all matched but it was fun and worth it - they are now all organised like this: 

and here are my lovely new Spring Stampclub set stamps

 - which have pride of place at the front of the book at the moment!

and yes this is all that I have had chance to do with them this week - cant believe I have had these beauties for 7 days now and not used them properly - still hopefully I can have a play tonight!

Have also found some A5 ring binders in Tescos for 60p so I bought a couple of those along with 50 of the inserts (think that they were a £1) and put my Lavinia and Lili of the Valley stamps into them:

I did use the Paperchase folders before but they kept sticking and ripping the inserts so I am now just using those for my Paperartsy rubber stamps which are fine in there - I have laminated these stamped sheets and then am storing the stamps with their own plastic cover over them - I know I could have put them in the Paperchase folders like that but they sit better in a ring binder.

I have also created these colour tags for my distress inks and favourite promarker colour blends - these are all bound together with a bookring and stored on my little bucket handle for convenience:

These are all of my distress inks - sponged on with foam, then inked directly around the edges and then stamped to show me all the different colour results in one quick look - very useful!

These are my little promarker colour blend tags so that I can see what shades I like to use for certain jeans or hair colours etc:

and then on the back I have written the colours used:

sorry for the poor picture quality on some of these but since my craft room has been half converted back into an office I have lost my photography "space" where I had good lighting and background beforehand.  I now have to clear a new space somewhere to create a new "photograph area" but until then I am just taking snaps directly onto a desk - not ideal I know!

I also bought four of these pencil cases so I could split my promarkers out a bit - now I dont have them all in one case and should be able to find colours a bit quicker and also a bit quieter as OH moans when I am mooching through the suitcase for a colour as he cant hear the telly!

they are only 39p each which I thought was a bargain.  I have just printed out another promarker colour chart from the letraset website and then coloured in what pens go in the case and then laminated those.  I love my laminator!!!

Thats it for now - I printed off some challenges and some inspirational cards earlier so hopefully they will give me the mojo to get cracking on some cards of my own now!

Happy crafting.

What a week

Sorry I havent been on much this week have been really busy with workshops, housework and school stuff.  Here is a piccy of a layout that I finally finished this week - its been a work in progress for about 3 months! 

and not a piece of patterned paper in sight either!  although the little journalling block is actually from a Designer Digitals pirate kit I have but the rest is just done with stamping, inking and some chalks.  Have just found a link about a challenge about doing a card/layout with no patterned paper so I am going to enter this into that: its here http://paperplaychallenges.blogspot.com/ however if I cant enter because of the journalling block I understand!

And here are two tags I have prepared for a class - hopefully this will be run on Thursday 20th May from 10.00 - 12.00 but I still need to confirm the venue but if you would like to come along and see how the paper flower is made - these are so all the rage at the moment and so useful to know how to do - I have made loads and use them on nearly every project at the moment! then please let myself or Morag know:

Thats if for now - hope you are all enjoying the fabulous weather!  I have had my washing out on the line yet again today - honest!

Thanks for looking :)

Dont you just love the holidays!

Sorry I have been a bit quiet but we went away last week to Windsor and Chessington - have had a fabulous time and the weather was brilliant for this time of year however I am a bit theme parked out now!  We had two days at Legoland, one day at Thorpe Park and then Two and half days at Chessington World of Adventures (my favourite place now - I was pleasantly surprised!).  We also had a lovely day wandering around Brighton where I found a fabulous jewellery shop and a Cath Kidston shop so I bought a few goodies (as you do!).

Here are a few items I made before I went away - sorry I didnt get time to upload them beforehand:

Here is a new necklace I have made for myself - its using two new Paper Artsy stamps which have been stamped out onto metal and I have again made a flower (told you I was addicted!) - its very light and comfortable to wear although I might change the chain and put it on a leather strip when I get round to buying one from Hobbycrafts (have I mentioned that there is one in walking distance from my house??)!

Here is a card that I actually started about two months ago - it was based on a sketch and I was trying to get a clock theme going using the clock glimmer screen and then image inside it which I am not sure if it has totally worked but I am still pleased with the results:

Next I was messing around with some texture paste I bought at the NEC - again from Paper Artsy - such a fabulous shop! - and yes there is another handmade flower on there using their stamps, the birdie is also on the same set.  Cant wait to put this little beauty on a layout:

And then here is a cute little tag I made using a plastic tag I got (again from the NEC and I think it was a freebie from the Paper Artsy stand or it could have been the Graphicus one).  Very simple, one Paper Artsy collage stamp on the background and their butterfly wings, finished with a metal embellishment.  Background is done using distress inks and the flower is a bought one!!  leaves are punched out though:

I have come back from holiday feeling quite inspired and then what a glorious welcome home I had as my Magnolia Spring Collection stamps had arrived!  16 fabulous new Magnolias for me to play with - so I have spent this morning reorganising my Magnolia folder - just need to run the pages through my laminator now and I will be done and ready to go!  Have also managed to get three loads of washing done - the first of which is already dry after being on the line!

Looking forward to the crop tomorrow and hope to see a few of you there!

April Class

Hi, Have been busy finishing off more easter baskets and cards all of which have now been delivered.  Have also got the house to myself today and have so far tidied up after everyone and spent 3 hours ironing!  that will teach me to miss a week!  still at least I got to watch the second episode of Touch of Frost and a canterbury tale so I am not complaining - am just going to go and run the vaccum around downstairs and then have a little scrap - am expecting B home anytime soon so the peace wont last much longer!

Just thought I would pop on here and show you this months class:

a very simple layout, although quite a bit of cutting out - sorry girls, but the Animal Bash Prima papers are so cute they do all the work really.  Crop is on 18th April.

Thanks for looking :) and I hope you all had a great Easter and didnt eat too much chocolate!

My passion

for making boxes continues and there I was merrily making this one the other night: 

when Morag said "that tag would look good on a suitcase" - well of course I just went right off on one and came up with this little beauty:

isn't it fab (even if I say so myself!).  I changed the handmade flower (how addictive are they! have already made about 20 of them!!) for a gorgeous prima flower - stamps are Tim Holtz, Prima, Paper Artsy (my new favourites at the moment) and some travel ones I bought from the Works a while back.  I used kraft cardstock and bazzill cardstock in green and dark brown, distress inks, Stampin Up inks and a bit of string!

Hope everyone is having a great Easter - we are having a day in today after venturing out to Stratford yesterday in the rain and then also visiting Tescos.  So whilst the boys are all entertained either playing with lego or Flat Out on the Xbox360 I am going to do some scrapping!  Have an urge to do a layout or a card at the moment - who knows I might manage both!!

Thanks for looking :) 

Shopping!

oooooh its Hobbycrafts day!  a whole day at the NEC spending money I dont have on things I dont need!!! am sooooooo excited - just got to make my sandwich and pack my shopping list (have no idea why I have written one of those - as if I will stick to it!  no doubt I will have to buy something from the first stall I see and it will all go pear shaped from there!!!!).  What fun :)

Such fun!

Morag and I have put together a beautiful kit and have been having a lovely time creating all sorts of items to showcase it.  Here are some pictures of the kit:

and here are some of the items I have made over the past week:

a vintage butterfly card - arent these new Prima papers lovely!

A cute box to store some stash in

a trifold card - been meaning to make one of these for ages and it was just crying out to be finished with one of the lovely prima flowers included in the kit

A layout of me!!  doesnt happen very often!  must get round to doing some more.....

A beautiful gift bag - trouble is I think I might find it too difficult to give this one away!

The kit costs just £25 saving £5 on the retail value. The optional stamp set (shown on all items apart from the butterfly card) is just £5 as an add-on (RRP £6.99).  We have also compiled our sweet ideas journal (included) which contains pictures of all the projects that Morag and I have made giving you inspiration to help you get the most from your kit.


To reserve your kit or find out more information go to our website http://www.whathousework.co.uk/, use the contact form and we'll send you full details of the contents.  Please be quick though as we already only have a few left.

Thanks for looking and sorry I havent been updating as often recently but now you all know why!

Early Christmas

Hi everyone, have been busy making quite a few things but they have either already been sent (a few birthday cards) without me taking photos as they have been pretty similar to other stuff I have made (5 year old birthday cards and a couple of reflection cards) or are still half finished or "need tweaking" so I only have one picture to show for myself at the moment! I am trying to keep up with the Christmas challenges at http://www.abcchristmaschallenge.blogspot.com/ although my Angel and Decoration cards havent yet been made and my Bell card is still waiting to have the bell attached! However I have made the Elf card and here he is:

Its an easel card with the bottom part being made up of strips of paper so it looks like a roof - the photo doesnt do the card much justice I'm afraid as it looks really cool in real life. Card is made up using nestibility dies and then again I have used the fabulous My Minds Eye Colourful Christmas papers, Chimney and Elf are magnolia stamps, the robin is by Ollyphant, the leaves are sizzix and the greeting is hand written for once! I would like to enter this into their challenge this fortnight which is Elf.

Thanks for looking! :)