Sorry but I have been very busy....

I firstly have to say how sorry I am that I haven't been on here for such a long time but I have just been so busy with the shop that I just dont seem to find any time.

Well what have I been doing? I have been very busy with orders and making new stock for the shop so thats my excuse for not having visited my blog in such a long time.

The shop is doing really well and is keeping us very busy at the minute, we have taken some wedding orders for the upcoming months which is really nice.

We have craft club well established now and have now had to extend this to 3 sessions a week to give everyone a place, we have met some lovely people since opening the shop and the craft club is proving to be very popular. Our ladies are all different crafting abilities but they all seem very keen to have a go at anything we throw at them. Her are the first 3 Ladies who have been with us since the first week

Susan with her first attempt at crafting, Susan had never made anything before but started with a blackboard, she has since made another for her DIL.

Tina with her first shopping board, Tina was another lady who had never crafted before but has now made a number of items with us

Christine with her first shopping board, both Christine and Tina now plan to make as many Christmas presents as they can.

Wednesday now seems to be family night which is really nice as us girls dont seem to get together so often now, there are 6 of us all chatting and crafting, 2 of my DIL's have never crafted but both are planning to start scrapbooks of their Boys. Marie is a little more into crafting and has made things with me before this is one of the blackboards by my DIL Marie, she made 2, one for her and one for her Mum.

So thats some of the things that have been keeping me away from my blog, you need to go and look at Karen's blog to see some of the beautiful cards she has been making for the shop

I promise I will try and visit more often and bring you more of the items we have been making very soon!

The countdown to Christmas and pictures of my box!

As promised I want to show you a few pictures of something I have made recently, I have decorated this box to be given as a present, the box is from Ikea. I am only responsible for the decorating and not for the stunning piece of stitching that adorns the top.





I lined all the drawers out using papers to match the colour of ink I used and added a length of tape measure along the bottom as this will be used as a sewing box.





I used a set of Rubber Stamp Tapestry peg stamps along with a set of flourish stamps by Rhonna farrer to make up the design. I then used a brown pen to add the small branches and added pearls to the finished design.



A few close up pictures of the hardanger used on the top

The hardanger was designed by a very talented lady called Colly who has an online shop which you should go and have a look at.

I used small wooden reel to make handles for the drawers which I painted and stamped to match the box.

I have orders for 2 more of these, the first one is for Colly and I am going to start this one today so hopefully I will have pictures of that one next week.

Well I am now on the countdown to Christmas, as you all know I do have a few grandchildren to cater for but I am not making for all of them this year so that should make Christmas a little easier.

So far I have 4 patchwork quilts to make, these are for the babies that hadn't been born when I made the last lot of quilts. I also have 3 pencil boxes to make like those I made last year, these are for the little ones who have just started school this year. I also have a few orders to get finished for other people so this will no doubt keep me out of trouble for a little while.

Hope to be back tomorrow with pictures of a few more bits I have made, off to do some chores as I will be going to see my Son at some point today as it is his birthday

Happy Birthday Dean! x x x

365 Cards - Day 71 - Super Sketchy Sunday

Well it has been another hectic day in my house today, my DIL Marie who made the wall hanging with me last weekend returned today to make another project only this time she brought her friend Gemma with her. They had bought some canvases from town and wanted me to help them to decorate them, easy I hear you say.........



... ok easy enough,but there was 2 of them and both complete novices so it took nearly all morning to sort their photo's out before we could make a start and then all afternoon to complete the canvases but they were both pleased the end result... I hope!!!


Here is the one Gemma altered




A fun Family themed canvas


Here is Marie's, this was made as a present for her Hubby for their Wedding Anniversary on Tuesday. Marie's has photos from their wedding.






I was really pleased with how they turned out and hope that both ladies enjoyed altering their canvases.

Whilst the 2 ladies were busy making their canvases my other DIL Tracey arrived and she spent some time making her Hubby's Wedding Anniversary card whilst she was here, her anniversary is a week on Tuesday.


Here is the card Tracey made with a little help from me!!!





Well Marie wants to come back with Gemma to make something else and they have another friend that wants to come too, looks like I am now giving lessons so maybe I should pursue this and make it more of a regular thing and see who else may be interested locally in coming along.


All afternoon my Hubby and our 2 Sons were safely tucked away watching the football and looking after the kids while I was trying to teach the girls how to complete their projects and make a start on cooking a Sunday Roast dinner, once they had finished I cooked dinner for 11 of us so needless to say I am a little tired tonight.

After dinner I made a start on cutting the bits needed to make 12 Invitation card for my GS 2nd birthday party so it is a good job I made my challenge card this morning before everyone arrived.


The challenge on 365 Cards today was a sketch and here it is



Here is my card





and the inside





On this card I have used some of the stamps I won on Jak Heaths blog, Crafters kitchen a few weeks ago, I stamped the flower onto white card and then onto another piece and cut that out to 3D on top. I used the leaf stamp to add detail aroung the flower. I used part of the large stamp to create a border which I cut round before adding it to the card. I have added a tied ribbon from which hangs a charm.

This card is also being entered for the challenge on Paper Blooms . This week we are thinking about that special woman (or women) that touch our life in a special way, whether this is your mom or a very close friend we want you to make a project that you'll be sure to give her to let her know how special she is to you.

All I have left to do now is make 2 Wedding Anniversary cards for our 2 Sons for their wives, one for this Tuesday and one for next Tuesday and thats me done for the day, maybe I will leave them until the morning and go off to my bed!

Well I do hope this all makes sense as I am so tired it may be a little strange in places but before I close I would like to wish all of the Mum's out there a Happy Mothers Day.





PS. I have had a lovely comment left from Post Pals saying they thought the card I made yesterday was lovely and that I should send this onto a child also, so that is what I shall do with it, it looks like I was possibly the only one who hated it in the end.

Another car Boot find revamped!

I love car boot sales and I try to make it every Sunday to our local one. It always surprises me the rubbish that some people take to sell at a car boot sale but you do get some good items if you look for them and get there early.

You know what they say 'One mans trash is another mans treasure'

Well here is the other little treasure I found last time I went, I bought this and the wooden chest I posted yesterday for 50p each!

The inside is just an empty box so I decided to make it into a Key Cupboard.

Here is what it looks like now

At first this said country cottage to me but then I decided to go for a more funky look. I wanted to use this digi paper as it has a small pattern on it, it is a Free Download from Shabby Princess called Express Yourself so I took my colours from the paper.

Using my Acrylic paints I painted the window frame White and then mixed the colours to match the paper and painted the rest of the box Blue. The window box was painted in the same Chocolate Truffle I painted the chest in yesterday.

I cut a piece of the paper to fit the back of the box and then stuck a piece of wood that had been painted Chocolate and cut to size to the back of the box to screw the hooks into.

Originally I was going to try and make curtains for the inside of the window but I remembered I had some off cuts from my vertical blinds so I cut 2 lengths into 2cm strips and fixed them to the inside of the window allowing 4 lengths for each side, I tried the blinds shut but thought they looked better open so you can see into the box. I added a trim to the top and bottom cut from Bazzill using my MS punch.

Here is a closer view, you can see the blinds better in this picture

I printed the Flower paper from the same range and cut out the flowers and using strips of card, some 3D foam pads I made the flowery window box display.

I am really pleased with how this turned out and I think I already have a buyer for this one!

Hopefully I will find more treasure next Sunday when I go again

Hope you like it

I have had a busy day, another Long post!!!!!

As I have already told you all I didn't achieve very much yesterday but I think I have made up for it today.


I have had this little wooden crib knocking around the house for a couple of years now and never quite knew what to do with it until today. The crib measures just 4" high, 4" wide and 6" long, it looks bigger in the photo!




Well I finally decided to do something with it and this is how it looks now

I painted the crib using Laura Ashley paint in Ivory, I also used Laura Ashley Peony to paint the small side rails. I took my Rubber Stamp tapestry Stamps and my SU Certainly Celery, Rose, Perfect Plum and Pale Plum inks to stamp the design.

I then decided to make a small acrylic album to go in it and as it only measures 2.25" x 4.5" I filled it with Baby Girl Poems that I printed onto vellum.

The front cover complete with pram charm.


First 2 pages

Next 2 pages


Last 2 pages

The back cover which I have made to look like a patchwork quilt



The album inside the crib

I am not sure if this will be a gift for someone at work or go in my collection for the Baby shop

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I then decided it was time to look at today's challenge on 365 Cards and today it is Day 64 - Super Sketch Sunday

Here is today's sketch

I had a project in mind and as soon as I saw the challenge on Colour Create I knew I was going to combine the 2 challenges.

The challenge on Colour Create has been chosen by Mina using this picture as inspiration and the colours Red, Cream and Chocolate with the added option of using ribbon.

Yummy isn't it?

Well here is my card for the challenge on 365 cards

For my card I cut a card base at 4" x 3.5" out of Bazzill Java so it would fit inside the box, I used a scrap of the same PP from Creative Imaginations and a length of ribbon to cut across the design. I stamped the swirl with my Rhonna farrer stamps using Dk. Brown stazon and added the 3 pearls. I finished the design by adding the Red Flower threaded with the Brown Mother of pearl Button.

I then started my project for the Colour Create challenge.

I bought this little box at the car boot sale for 50p a few weeks ago, it was just plain wood so here is what I have done with it using the colours from Colour Create and the Sketch from 365 Cards

I painted the outside of the box with Chocolate Truffle mat emulsion ( it looks Black in the photo but it is a rich chocolate brown) I then cut the PP to fit diagonally across the box lid, the PP is from a collection that I bought a while ago by Creative Imaginations.

I used my Rhonna farrer stamps to stamp the swirls and added the pearls, I used a length of rather luscious Cream braid to follow the line of the paper, this is my ribbon.

This PP is called cream lines and has a scalloped edge which I cut so it was along both the bottom and left side of the lid, I used the holes in the scallops to attach buttons by stitching them in a line using Linen thread and the holes as a guide.

The inside of the box has been painted using Laura Ashley Ivory paint and has another piece of the PP stuck to the bottom of the inside of the box.

The box with gift card inside

I think this would make a lovely Jewelry box for someone.

Well that's all form me today but I am not at work tomorrow so maybe I will get time to play some more.

Hope you like my projects, if you do please leave me a comment, I really appreciate them

365 Cards # 63, Secret Crafter # 30 and Use it Challenges

Well today was National Scrapbook day, I had loads planned and what did I manage to get done all day?

I tell you - One card!! Why?

I had both my Daughter Sarah and 2 of my DIL's round to scrap, one of my DIL's; Karen is a very accomplished Scrapbooker but Marie has never done anything like this before, my Daughter has made a couple of things but is still very much a novice.

They both ended the day having finished a complete project so both were very happy, I on the other hand got nothing done as I was showing my DIL how to make this based on the one I made the other day



Marie wanted to make this after seeing Sarah's, she has used photo's of her 2 Sons.

At the same time both Karen and I helped Sarah to make these






These have been made into the cheap Ikea photo frames that cost about £1-00 for 3, from the angle I have taken the pictures you cant actually see they are in frames.
Sarah has used the photo's from her make over we got her for her 14th Birthday.

But I did manage to get this made once they had all gone home



This is for today's challenge on 365 Cards where we had to use 8 Flowers, I have made this using the green flowered paper, printed the sentiment which reads

A Mothers treasure is her Daughter

This was cut out using my nestabilities and I cut a larger circle in Pink to add the sentiment on to, I added a green ribbon and 8 different flowers, even though some are layered I still have 8 different ones.

This also covers the challenge at the Use it blog which is to use

Flowers - which I have

Fibres - which I have

Metal -which are the brads

Tool you dont often use- I used my old paper trimmer, I normally cut everything with a craft knife and a ruler.

A card to honour an important woman in your life - this is for my daughter.

Lastly it is for the challenge at the Secret Crafter Saturday challenge who want us to use Flowers on our cards, starting to see a pattern here!

An eventful day even if I didnt get alot done, have you done anything for NSD?

Paper Blooms #5 - Inspiration and....

... something to cheer my Daughter up as she is poorly!

My poor Sarah has Tonsillitus which isn't unusual but she had her Tonsills out about 2 years ago so to help cheer her up I decided to use this challenge to make something for her bedroom.


The challenge at Paper Blooms this week was to take inspiration from this picture of Leah's dishes, they say vintage and Laura Ashley to me so I got out my K & Co. Hannah papers and set to it.



This is what I made her



Not the best picture so here is each piece in more detail




Cameron is Sarah's Boyfriend



Dean is Sarah's Brother, my Husband and I only have Dean and Sarah together




and this is her 'Daddy'



I took a selection of photo's that were taken at the weddings of each of our 3 sons and printed them quite small, most of the photo's were of her as a Bridesmaid.

I took 2 squares of Acetate and puched a hole at each side at both top and bottom, the heart is wood and as luck had it I already had this cut out so I painted it with Ivory Laura Ashley paint and covered it with paper, edged all round with a gold Krylon pen.

I decorated the heart and each piece of Acetate with papers, flowers and computer generated sentiment, added the photo's and tied the whole thing together with Ribbons.

If you haven't been across to Paper Blooms yet you really should go and have a look, its quite a new challenge blog but the DT work is fab and they have had some great challenges so far, go on take a look, have a go, its always good to try something new.

Well Sarah has just got up and she loves it, so I am glad it has made her feel a little happier, hope you like it too!