My budding little actor

A while ago (March in fact) Oliver was in a school production of Romeo and Juliet - he was the Narrator so had quite a big part at the very beginning and again at the very end but then had to sit very quietly for about an hour and a half during the rest of the production! 

The whole school did fabulous show and when you think that they were only in Years 5 and 6 and the script was all in olde English we were all so proud!

Anyway for my Color or is Colour week 5 - which was Purple - I have done this layout:

should have been done 3 weeks ago - oops!  It was based on a sketch provided with the course but I have promptly lost my paper copy of it and the connection took too long to load on DS's PC earlier so I have stuck this down by memory so it's probably completely different!  I did the base of the layout and most of the bits at my last crop but have only just gotten around to sticking it down and finishing it today - honestly going away on holiday really messes up your crafting doesn't it!

Stuff used:  My Minds Eye 29th Street Market papers, purple cardstock, Purple texture paste, Red inca gold paint, Basic Grey Archaic brads, Prima "Make Me Happy" flowers, Making Memories Passport Alphabet, various Promarkers, Sepia Archival Ink, a Primark necklace key (how quickly have I used one of those!!), Earthy Pastel Hemp.  Distress Inks: Old Paper, Fired Brick and Vintage Photo.  Stamps: Non Sequitor, Stampers Anonymous, Magnolia, and Creative Expressions.

Thanks for looking :)  I have just moved all of my crafty bits and pieces that were in the dining room back into my craft room so I am hoping this will get my creative juices flowing and I am planning on making something else this afternoon too.  Don't you just love bank holidays :)

Oooh you heard it here first!

Primark have some lovely new jewellery in store:

just look at those fab keys! that necklace was £4 and has 9 fantastic keys on it, the long brown necklace was on sale for a £1 and I think the leaves were £2 and the silver one £3 (I actually wore that yesterday too!) - going to have a lovely sit down later this afternoon with my little pliers and take them all to pieces - can't wait to start using them on projects - just think how fabulous those leaves are going to look when I have applied alcohol ink on them - whoo hoo.
Also a big hi to Bekca - thanks for following me :)

Have been awol this week as I have been in sunny Cardiff and Swansea (visiting Primark!) with the family. This week I am hoping to catch up with some more sewing - finally treated myself to a thimble at the Festival of Quilts (fantastic quilt show - well worth going to if you love sewing - the winners quilts were stunning - put my cushions and organisers to shame!). To the girls at my crop I am still working on the Shakespeare layout too! maybe this week eh!

Have also updated the WhatHouseworkBlog so please check that out if you are coming to our charity crop - we have just one space left now!

Thanks for looking :)

I so wasn't looking forward

to going into Birmingham town centre last night, but

was worth it!  We drove in and parked at the Arcadian car park which is right by the Hippodrome, they kept shutting the shutters to lock everyone in!  We then sat in the car and ate our tea (chicken sandwich and a bag of crisps - so romantic!) then walked round to see the show - which was great we really enjoyed it.  I feel like rummaging through the boxes in the loft to see if I can find my 18 Queen LP's! When we came out the streets were eerily deserted but when we drove up to the main Pershore Road we saw that the police had cordoned off the street, then when we drove round towards the Blues ground (we thought that going up the Coventry Road would be safer than driving up the Stratford Road) every road was cordoned off hence an empty town centre.  Quite spooky - feels like quite an adventure now that I am sitting here typing about it!

Thanks for looking :)

WOYWW 114

Well I had a busy day yesterday - my Mom phoned first thing and asked if she could have the children for the day and who was I to argue?  My first thought was "great I can catch up with the housework I need to do" so I will let you guess did I a: get out the duster and cleaning stuff and do those jobs or b: get out my craft table, watch a few episodes of Glee and New Tricks and get creative???

Yep you are right I caught up with this housework:

so that was my craft table in front of the telly yesterday afternoon.

These are the few bits and pieces I made/finished off:

made this from scratch - I did up a bunch of tags in Mustard Seed, Wild Honey and Rusty Hinge covered with a lemon mica powder and just went to it with some bits and pieces I had to hand.  The bird was inked with Spiced Marmalade, Tea Dye and Vintage Photo then covered with Rock Candy crackle glaze - when dry I went over the legs with Walnut Stain, the flowers were black and white so I covered them with Barn Door to add a bit of pizazz.

same colour inks over a tag covered with a sewing pattern then I splattered some Wild Honey reinker on the tag and blew it around with a straw.  Coloured the mannequin with Wild Honey and edged with Rusty Hinge finished simply with the tulle, some orange washi tape, four pearls and a metal heart, the bottom is just a tissue tape layered with ribbons and jems.

finished off this embellishment as I had actually made it a couple of weeks ago whilst working on my Colour or is Color? course about layering embellishments.  This one was just one of a few I made and was the most simplest - just used up some old stuff lying around apart from the butterfly.  Yesterday I just glued the nib on the clock and adhered the clock and butterfly down.

Thats it from me today - hoping to catch up with a few desks later as I haven't been joining in for the past few weeks and can't see me joining in again for the next few either!  Both children and I now have bikes so we are spending most of our days out and about.  If you want to join in the weekly fun of looking at crafters desks then please pop over to Julias we would love to see you!

Thanks for looking :)

Its been all go here!

Have been really busy this past week - visiting my Nan for a couple of days, taking the children out on their bikes (how stressful is that!) and also busy beavering away getting my class layout completed for yesterday's crop and also finishing off the mini book I am going to be making at our Charity Crop on 10th September - 4 spaces/kits left if you are interested!

Here is my class for yesterday:

Gorgeous Prima papers which basically did all the work, all we had to do was some cutting and layering, and aren't those new butterflies just fantastic too!  Love this layout and it's even got me on it!

Then on Friday whilst the children were pottering around the house and doing their own thing I actually got on with some sewing - I find sewing far more relaxing than scrapping at the moment - probably because it's far less stressful to follow a pattern rather than designing something from scratch.  Anyway get ready because my little machine was a busy little thing (I even got through 3 needles!). 

First I made this:

Isn't that spotty material just fab - it was a bit of a faff but worth it!  If anyone knows where I can get a cushion to fit it apart from Dunelm Mill (cause I am not sure how to get there!) please let me know.  It needs to be 13" x 20" - thanks!

Next I made two of these:

piping and all!  I even discovered that I have a piping foot after making both of these (can only happen to me can't it!) - now need to make something else with piping just so that I can use that foot!  Now need a trip to Primark (whoo hoo) to get a cushion to fill the second one.

Then I made this:

a quick and simple little basket - looked so much better at the Malvern quilt show though!  still I have enough material to make another one and it will come in handy.

And now I am half way through this:

it's a Mandy Shaw organiser - cause I need another one!  I love making these and they are so useful to keep bits and pieces in - this one will have a notebook in the third section so I will use it to keep notes and pens in rather than sewing accessories.

Phew - told you I had been busy didn't I!

Thanks for looking and please leave me a comment if you pass by.

Colour is it colour? Blue

I am a bit behind this week as its been a bit hectic here with the children being off school and my Nans 89th Birthday, but I have managed to get this completed today:

excuse the shadows this was taken a few minutes ago in my lounge and I have a tree on my front lawn! 

I scrap a lot of blue so I decided to stick with Nic's sketch and also almost her colours too but where she used orange I used green (just so I could use up some old Daisy D baby boy papers I have been hoarding forever!).  I made the tag on the left at my last crop and it really has nothing to do with a theme park but the colours matched so I decided to use it on this layout - although this isn't one of my favourites or indeed one of my best pieces of work I am pleased that I have managed to use some templates and stamps I have had unused in my stash for a while, a premade tag and also use up five difficult to scrap photos in one go too!

Not sure I have learnt much about the colour blue this week as I have been a bit too busy to concentrate on it but I am pleased that I got a chance to have a play! 

Our fabulous kit turned up yesterday for our charity crop so I can't wait to get playing with that tonight too - if you are interested there are just 6 spaces left - details are on the right hand side just click on the picture.

Thanks for looking :)

Another quick layout

Not!

Isn't it typical that I thought I would just do another quick green layout (get me - I never do green so I am definately learning on my Colour or is Color? course!).  Anyway four days later here is the finished article:

Not sure why it took so long because it's not really complicated but I did faff around deciding upon the zoo/trees/leaves as for the first two days I was planning on using birds.  Also the fact that I have hand cut out all the leaves/animals and trees slowed me down too!

Anyway stash used was:
My Minds Eye Quite Contrary papers - "Little Man" Journaling card and Zig Zag paper and "Curious" Who Loves You paper.  Distress inks used were: Vintage Photo, Forest Moss, Tumbled Glass, Worn Lipstick, Pumice Stone and Frayed Burlap.  The doily was sprayed with an orange glimmer mist and I used orange bling for the coconuts in the trees.  Stamps used were: Autumn Leaves Mindy's Zoo, Stampers Anonymous "The journey...", Woodware Woodland Mushrooms (the leaves) and Creative Expressions Vintage Aviation (the balloon).  The two chipboard accents are by Colorbok part of their my Wild Life range. Layout is based on a July 2011 Page Map .  Hope you like it!

Also I finally have put the finishing touches to my red layout from 3 weeks ago:

so it finally has the birdcage and a few extras on the top right and the red on the left hand side didn't sit right with me as I felt it needed a bit more but another material flower was too much so I added another birdcage and a few bits there too.

Thanks for looking - am off for a sit down now as we have all been out our bikes today as we managed to get DS1 and OH new ones yesterday thanks to the 20% off sale at Toys R Us. Whoo hoo.

Green layout

This week on my Colour or is Color? course its green.  Here is my take on the sketch we were given:

You will have to forgive the rubbish quality but I dont know how to edit on Windows Live Photo Gallery and thats all I have on my laptop which is why I couldnt remove the school name from the sign nicely!
Anyway I have used:
Creative Imaginations - Narratives "Remember Ledger" cardstock and some K & Co. papers.  Bundled Sage and Vintage Photo distress inks, Tim Holtz car embossing folder, Stampers Anonymous Reflections stamp and tickets, Time stamps are Recollections "Time Flies", Martha Stewart vine punch, I paper pieced the owls, dymo labeller, hemp twine, tissue tape (hidden underneath the brown pom pom ribbon), brown pom pom ribbon, acorn buttons, black bling for the owls eyes and a few staples.

Thanks for looking :)

Sketchy Thursday

Thought I would have a go at the monthly challenge over at http://sketchythursdays.blogspot.com/.  Now I have learnt from my colour course - honest I have, I really, really have.  I read and understand that red, orange and yellow are best used as accent colours otherwise they are very overpowering - and I did that in my layout for the course last week (in fact deep down I already really knew it too) but I have to admit that I just love bold bright colours so, even though I have learnt and know the rules to using bright colours, as the above sketch is their monthly challenge and needed to include red, orange and/or yellow I thought I would go for a bright Disney layout, and here it is:

The criteria for the challenge is to use the sketch (had to change the circle to a rectangle as I have used a postcard - the 2008 one which is one of those changing images so it shows either the number with the hats on or with the characters faces on depending upon which way you tilt it), then it had to be a summer topic - these photos were taken in the summer of 2008, use red, orange and/or yellow - think I did that! and also to use a journal spot which again is my red postcard as the title says it all really!

I used a yellow core cardstock, Echo Park "A Walk in the Park" papers and stickers, Creative Imaginations epoxy rocket sticker, orange hemp, red ribbon, Crafters Workshop template (the clock), Brushed Corduroy and Spiced Marmalade distress inks, the Mickey ears were cut on my craft robo, Reminisce Real Magic "My Favourite Ride" sticker, staples, the stamps I used were: Recollections "Going Places" map, Cloud 9 Designs "Travel" We Love it Here, K & Company "Happy Trails" Photo Op, My Minds Eye "Lost and Found" Fun and Family.

Thanks for looking and I hope you like my bright funky layout!

A card for my Father in Law

Had a lovely play day yesterday - finished off the layout in yesterdays post below, made some tags - did some nice ones and also made a couple of disasters too - will post those later in the week.  My mojo seems to have come back this weekend though so I have managed to join in with a challenge too:

The challenge over at http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com/ is pack your suitcase and this quick and simple card fits that bills nicely so I am entering it into their challenge - haven't entered a card for a few weeks now so have been getting withdrawal symptoms!  Uses a le Blanche stamp, My Minds Eye papers, inked and glittered chipboard letters, some hemp and a charm - nice and simple!

Am hoping to do another layout today too in between the cooking, gardening and water fight I need to do (that's the trouble with having two boys and buying them water pistols you have to get wet! doh).

Thanks for looking :)

Colour or is color? Orange

Here is my layout for the orange part of the course:

am much happier with this one as I have had more time to spend on it and make it my own rather than scraplifting which is what I did with the red one.  Would have been better with a black and white photo too but hey ho I want to reduce my current photo pile not add to it!

Stash used was:  Black cardstock, white cardstock, Imaginisce Hallowhimsy "Eat, Drink and Be Scary" and "Velcome Inn" papers, Magnolia ink (I know! have actually cut into a sheet - wow!)So Spooky "Halloween Star" paper and My Minds Eye Haunted "Raven" this is the main kraft sheet which is really cool as the raven is flock and very touchy feely (again I have the whole pack of this set of papers and I bought them in November and this is the first time I have used them so I am well pleased about that too!), also used a couple of the bits from the accessory sheet too. For the top I used my Martha Stewart gravestone punch, I hand cut out the Magnolia paper scallops in the hope that they would look like gravestones - not sure whether this is conveyed or not though!  The stamp in the bottom left hand corner is a Lavinia cobweb.  The mini birds and Upon A Time Alphabet are Sizzix dies and the ghosts, pumpkins and spider are quickutz. Have used Rusty Hinge, Black Soot and Mustard Seed distress inks and Orange, Lava Green, Black and Gold Inka gold paints.  The letters and spider have been covered in glossy accents so are nice and sparkly too.

Whole layout is based on a sketch by Nic Howard.

Thanks for looking :)

If that's not enough

I am doing another online course too!  This one is over at www.bigpictureclasses.com/ and is the Colour or is it Color? course by Nic Howard.  I only enrolled yesterday but the course actually started last Thursday so I hurriedly did the first weeks colour (red) last night by making my quick 6x6 pages like this:

The heart isn't stuck on yet because it needs to have red bakers twine wrapped around it but I definately got it out and put it on my craft table last night and as I had to leave the crackle paint on the heart to dry overnight I came to wrap it around this morning and I have lost it!  the whole reel!  if you see it let me know!

And here is the layout I did:

This is basically a complete scraplift of the one done in the class due to me wanting to finish it by today (this took me all night and then I left the sewing until today so that I didn't wake the children up using my machine!).  Not sure I like the placement of the red flowers by the birdie so I might have to add another one there and also I meant to put a small birdcage on the sewn strip on the right hand side and for some reason that completely slipped my mind today but I am sure I can manage to add one on there tonight.  Birds, swirls and flowers are sizzix dies - the birdies have been inked with Pumice Stone and covered with Burnished Bronze mica powders, the flowers are made from red fabric and inked with black soot, the swirls are inked with Pumice Stone and covered with Glittering Gold mica powders.  Papers are My Minds Eye and Basic Grey.

I have then spent about three hours today doing these two quick?? 6x6 pages:

have no idea why I had to spend so long messing about with them but they just weren't talking to me today and I did have the tv on so I guess I was just wasting time really.  Still onwards and upwards hopefully these courses will get me out of my scrappers block!

Thanks for looking :)

Looking to learn

Oooh am quite excited as I have signed up for this course:

http://limegreenbogiegirl.blogspot.com/p/online-classes.html

and am going to go to this workshop:

http://shop.afth.co.uk/sat-30th-july---kraft-resist-journal---10-3pm-5887-p.asp

can't wait to get started on the first one although it won't be today as the girls and I are off on a jolly to Bramble Patch in Northampton - it's our Summer Fayre is over treat!

Whoo hoo.

Also can I say a big hello to Sam - thanks for following me :)

Craft for a Cure

Well I finished my stint as Chair on my sons PA yesterday with a really good summer fayre - weather was great, turnout was great, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves which was great! so I am rather relieved (and very tired!) today. 

As they say when one door closes another one opens so this brings me onto my next fund raiser which is Craft for a Cure - Morag and I are doing another charity crop this year, once again all proceeds will go to Cancer Research UK - much more poignant to me this year due to losing my friend Cathy last Christmas to this horrible disease.

Here is the flyer that has been wonderfully designed by Morag:

If you would like to come along and support us in raising money for this very worthwhile cause please email either myself or Morag (our What Housework website is currently down at the moment due to technical issues but it will be resolved soon so watch that space too!)  - Cost is just £40 which will include a lovely venue, lunch, a fabulous paper kit and two classes. 

I will leave this post at the top of my blog for the next few weeks so for later posts please scroll down.

Thanks

Sorry I am awol

No problems here I am alive and well!  just not been scrapping or papercrafting for the past couple of weeks - I am on DS1's school parents association and it's our summer fayre this weekend so I am busy with that and also all the running round that usually happens in schools this time of year - today I have had a parents association meeting, been to Aquafit and done Forest School this afternoon at DS2's school so I am absolutely shattered!  Most evenings I have been too tired to get my scrapping stuff out so I have been sitting on the settee and catching up with my Mandy Shaw "A Quilter Lives Here" quilt which is coming along quite nicely now - when I remember I will take some snaps of the finished applique blocks I have already completed - I have done 4 out of the 8 so am half way now!

Just thought I would show you a picture of a layout I did back in May when my mojo was visiting:

These pictures were only taken in January too - how up to date am I!

Thanks for visiting :)

Still no mojo

but I have spent most of the day doing this layout:

Have found it quite a struggle as I seem to have scrappers block again but I just had to use the new Creative Journey London stamps I bought with my birthday money, shame I haven't really done them much justice as they are fabulous - my top tip from this layout is do not, under any circumstances, stick down a huge flower and a chipboard sign with glossy accents without standing up to check that the layout is balanced first! - I wouldn't mind but I rarely stick anything down with GA but I was too lazy to go upstairs and get the glue dots, which might have ripped some of the paper, but at least would have enabled me to reposition them!  I have tried to rebalance it all with extra stamps and cut out images so it is ok now but without my usual mojo and enthusiasm its been a pain!

Anyway hope you like it, my children do thankfully (at least I think they do, they might just be saying that so that I stop scrapping and start playing Lego Pirates of the Carribean with them on the xbox instead!).

Thanks for looking.

My PIFs Here!

It actually arrived yesterday but I haven't had time to photograph it until this afternoon - here it is:

I have a fabulous notebook which I will use to keep track of challenges in, a lovely card and some papers to play with.  The tag is also handmade so thank you so much Kyla - it's all fab.

I have also decided that the layout I partially showed on Wednesday is complete so here it is properly:

have decided that if I do eventually want to put dinosaurs and ladybirds peeking out I can!  Unfortunately this decision hasn't made my mojo magically reappear as I had hoped!  I have just inked a tag this afternoon using some of Tim's fabulous kraft resist cardstock that I have managed to get my hands on (thanks Bernice!) and I love it (both the cardstock and the inked tag) but don't seem to know where to go from there so it's sitting on my desk dining room table waiting to be finished - am off to take DS1 to football now so maybe the inspiration will strike when I get back!

Thanks for looking :)

WOYWW 105

Well how much fun was last week!  I have to admit my experience was a bit stressful too due to being on holiday and reliant on free wifi at breakfast and my OH's phone! but still I managed to join in, get my pif sent - from lovely Looe in Cornwall - and get in touch with my sender too, so phew. In fact looking back now me frantically waving a phone in the air to keep a dodgy connection whilst stuffing my face with a full english in the middle of a Cornish Premier Inn restaurant was probably quite a funny sight to see!  Honestly the things we do for our Wednesday fix of snooping!

I also didnt manage to get to visit many of you either due to being on holiday and then taking two days to celebrate my birthday but I will endeavour to try harder this week!

Here is my desk dining room table as of yesterday afternoon:

 - the black and white ribbon I have just bought today (Tues) from the rag market in Birmingham, the plant is a gift from my two little boys (it has pink glitter on it too - very sweet!), the Tilda box kit is a birthday present from a quarterly sewing club I am in, the yellow album and plastic bag should really be in the bin/recycling, the layout I have got very stressed about as I started it a couple of weeks ago and still cant seem to find the missing things to finish it (I envisaged little dinosaurs and ladybirds peeking out through the branches but cant muster up the energy to put them there!) so I have decided whilst taking this picture that actually the layout is complete as is and I am going to move on - no wonder I have no mojo if I am stressing over bits peeking out!!, the pile of stamps were bought before my holidays and I have yet to use them - oops.  Thats about it really - if you want to join in the fun and show your desk to the world then pop over to Julias and join in the fun.  We should all be showing our PIFs today but I havent received mine yet but will post it when I do!

Have a great day and thanks for looking :)

It's my birthday

Yay!

Not much craftyness to show today as we were away in Cornwall last week so I havent been making stuff (apart from some material flowers whilst sitting in the hotel room at night but they need sewing up) but still I thought I would share!

Had a big urge to do something creative last night (after I had finished unpacking and had started on the five loads of washing we bought home with us!) so I think my mojo is back - however I spent the night organising and filing away layouts as I managed to get three d ring binders (£2 each what a bargain!) from TK Maxx in Bristol last week.  Lets hope I get chance to craft later today - whoo hoo.

Here is a layout I did before we went away:

Nice and simple showing my two enjoying themselves at the Krispy Kreme factory at the really huge Tescos in Slough (no doubt we were on one of our many trips to Legoland last year! in some ways I am rather relieved our Merlin annual passes have run out as visiting so many theme parks in the short space of one year is really very tiring!). 

Anyway am off to open my cards and hopefully will be going shopping for some new crafty goodies later for new stamps I am sure I need.  Hope you all have a great day too.

WOYWW 104

Happy Birthday WOYWW!!!!  Whoo Hoo two years old today - how fantastic is that!

Here is my dining room table this morning:

As you can see my scrapping mojo is still awol but these are a couple of the bags I have been working on for my little boys.  Yes I know the digger material is upside down but he is only 6 he might not notice!  Have had the material for about four years now and thought I ought to use it as my two little boys are growing up so fast and its already a bit too "young" for them - anyway this pattern uses up four fat quarters which is ideal for me at the moment - at least when I get these finished I can get on and use some of the new stuff I bought at the Malvern Quilt Show a couple of weeks ago - or the stuff I bought last year come to think of it!

Thanks for looking and come and join in the birthday party fun over at Julias and show us your desk too!  Can't wait to see who's pif I will be getting!  Whoo hooo.